評論
打印
The 2016 field
2016大選陣勢
Romney returns
羅姆尼回歸
The list of possible Republican candidates grows longer and more familiar
共和黨競選人數越來越多，面孔愈發熟悉
WHEN a man wishes to run for president, he no longer announces the fact to voters, or chooses an issue on which to take a stand. Instead, he lets a group of donors know that he is “exploring” the possibility of a bid, as if the campaign trail were some inaccessible region inhabited by polar bears. For Mitt Romney, who told donors on January 9th that he might run again, after months of scoffing at the idea, it is hardly unfamiliar terrain. Should he give it a go, 2016 would see the third Romney presidential campaign (not counting his father's).
一個人即使想要競選總統，對選民他也會絕口不提，也不會就某事踩定立場，而是放出風聲給那些捐助人，讓他們知道他正在“招標”，貌似競選遙遙不可及，還縮在北極熊那旮旯里。而對于羅姆尼，這一場景也是似曾相識，他在1月9號告知捐助人，在幾個月的深思熟慮后，他可能決定再度參選。若不算他的父親，這已經是第三個參選的羅姆尼。
Why Mr Romney—a decent man who in 2012 was pounded by adverts painting him as a heartless capitalist and careless pet owner, then denounced as useless by fellow Republicans when he lost—should want to make another attempt on the presidency is a puzzle. Perhaps the best explanation was given by another explorer: because it is there. In very early polling, Mr Romney tops a list of possible Republican candidates so long that it is sometimes quicker to mention who is not running. The likely Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, currently looks a formidable opponent for any of them, but she has hardly been tested yet and, if she runs, will get little campaigning practice in her party's primary.
為何羅姆尼決定再注一擲原因仍然不明，要知道這樣一個體面的人在2012年卻被媒體渲染成一個沒心沒肺的資本家，粗心大意的飼養者，鎩羽而歸之日又被共和黨人指責毫無用武之地，也許原因來自一項調查：調查結果顯示總統一職幾乎手到擒來。早先的投票結果中，羅姆尼位居所有共和黨人之首，領先差距之大有時能一眼看出哪些已沒希望，而民主黨候選人可能是希拉里克林頓，一旦成功幾乎是他們所有人最為強勁的對手，但她還沒有經過試煉，在初選中獲得的經驗也是寥寥無幾。
Also in Mr Romney's favour is his surname. He would begin any campaign with the sort of recognition that costs many millions of dollars. More important, his name is not Bush, which polling suggests is not a popular one among independent voters. Republicans last won the White House without a Bush on the ticket in 1972. But if feelings were to harden against Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida and a fellow 2016 explorer, it would create some space on the business wing of the party, which thought it had found a winner until Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, got into a kerfuffle over a bridge and saw his state's bonds downgraded.=
羅姆尼的姓氏無疑給他贏得了加分，這種認可度作為任何競選的起點往往會耗資百萬，更重要的是它不姓布什，這個姓氏在選民中可不受歡迎，上一次非布什家族的人入主白宮還得追溯到1972年，但如果人們一意抵制杰布布什—佛羅里達前州長及2016參選人，到會給該黨經濟翼創造更多空間，之前他們也是滿心以為勝券在握，但新澤西州州長克里斯克里斯蒂無疑給他們潑了一盆冷水，
Were that gap to open, one of Mr Romney's immediate tasks would be to write a campaign book. Even for a life as lively as his, a third autobiography may seem like overkill. Though he is a self-described turnaround specialist, a Romney presidency seems unlikely. But that's what they said about Ronald Reagan, whose first two bids also failed.
若差距拉大，那羅姆尼的當務之急便是寫一本競選書籍，但即使他的閱歷多姿多彩，第三本自傳也顯得疊床架屋，雖然他自稱尤擅重張旗鼓，但贏得希望還是十分渺茫。但這也是當年對于里根的主流看法，他前兩次競選均為碰壁。
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