奥巴马特朗普 [奥巴马]

　　美国总统大选一直都很招人眼球，关键是因为它就像一场秀，其中尔虞我诈、相互诽谤、故意中伤的情节简直就如同一部高收视率的美剧。而08年的大选更是卖点连连，风头正健的奥巴马无疑就是其中之一。自美国建国以来，都是代表美国核心价值的盎格鲁-撒克逊白人当选总统。现在，当20多年来最难预测的新一轮总统竞选如火如荼地展开之际，人们发现，好莱坞电影中假想过无数次的黑人总统说不定真的会到来。
　　虽然以自由派为主的全美各大媒体对他青睐有加，但是奥巴马在外交与国际事物方面的捉襟见肘也是显而易见，此方面的缺失不是靠到伊拉克和欧洲走访一圈就能弥补的。就连他提出来的“变革”的竞选口号，也由于不能形成一整套成熟的政策论述而显得苍白无力。
　　但是不管11月揭晓的结果如何，作为在白人家庭长大的黑人孩子，奥巴马本身的经历就是对“美国梦”最好的注解，而且他对最高权利的追寻也证明了 “平等、自由、民主”存在的意义。
　　――Eva
　　
　　By the fall of 2002, Barack Obama had been in the 1)Illinois state senate for not quite six years. He had done what he could in a state capital where Republicans ruled, and he was ready for a change. As it happened, so were voters in Illinois, who that November put the Democrats back in power in Springfield.
　　In The Audacity of Hope, whose publication in the fall of 2006 effectively turned what was first
　　2)billed as a book tour into a march toward the 3)New Hampshire 4)primary, Obama 5)cops a plea to the quintessential qualification for any presidential candidate: “a chronic restlessness, an inability to appreciate, no matter how well things were going, those blessings that were right there in front of me.” He has tried to turn this to his advantage. “I know I haven’t spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington,” he said in announcing that he would run for president. “But I’ve been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change.”
　　His life is the story of a person just slightly ahead of his time, of a boy and a man whose search for the meaning of his 6)paternity, and thus his identity, has led him, over and over again, to make his own luck. Every person alive faces the challenge of finding a place in the world. Obama had to work harder than most to find his own place, and he long ago concluded that it would be a prominent one, in the public arena.
　　Barack Hussein Obama owes his very existence to a defiance of conventional odds. He was born and 7)came of age in Hawaii, the 50th state and in many ways among the freest-thinking. If Obama comes across as a bit of a softy―if you don’t see the toughness or the ambition at first―it may be in part because he spent his formative years in a place where “Live 8)Aloha” had not yet become a slogan aimed at recapturing a more gracious time, but was simply a way of life.
　　His mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was the white daughter of a Kansas furniture and insu-rance salesman. At 18, she met and married Barack Hussein Obama Sr., a former 9)Kenyan 10)goatherd and an economist-in-training who had recently become the first African student in the history of the University of Hawaii―this in 1960, a time when inter-racial marriage was still illegal in almost half the mainland states. The couple divorced in 1963, when their son was just 2.
　　 “There was a fundamental 11)rupture in my life between 12)Occidental and 13)Columbia, where I just became more serious,” Obama said. While he was in New York, his father died, giving the son “a sense of urgency about my own life.” He added, “Now, that doesn’t mean at that point I somehow instantly had these grand ambitions for political office. But I do think it was at that point in my life―those two years when I was in New York―where I made a decision that I wanted to, I wanted to make my mark.”
本文为全文原貌 未安装PDF浏览器用户请先下载安装 原版全文 　　He began making that mark in Chicago, the capital of the American black 14)diaspora. Obama arrived not knowing anyone, but ended up finding his life’s work, a deep Christian faith, and the woman who would become his wife and the mother of his two young daughters. In his work in Chicago, he not only explored his identity as a black American but determined to get the law degree that he believed would best prepare him for a career in public life. Since then, Obama has never 15)veered from the course he set.
　　It has become all but impossible to mention Obama without invoking the name of his fellow Illinoisan 16)Abraham Lincoln, however 17)preposterous the comparison might seem 18)at first blush. On February 11, 1861, the day before his 52nd birthday, Lincoln left Springfield to assume the presidency, and as he did so he made one of the most 19)eloquent speeches of his eloquent life. “Here I have lived for a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man,” he is reported to have said. “I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return.”
　　Obama’s own farewell to his colleagues in Springfield, on November 8, 2004, was less
　　eloquent but no less heartfelt. Afterward, he faced the Springfield press corps for the last time. Someone asked why he had already ruled out running on a national ticket with Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2008. His answer was crisp and immediate. “You know,” Obama replied, “I am a believer in knowing what you’re doing when you apply for a job. And I think that if I were to seriously consider running on a national ticket I would essentially have to start now, before having served a day in the Senate. Now, there are some people who might be comfortable doing that, but I’m not one of those people.”
　　But he is one of those people. He is. And wherever he is going, he has been one of them for a long, long time.
　　
　　到2002年的秋季，巴拉克・奥巴马担任伊利诺斯州州参议员已经差不多有六年的时间了。他在这个由共和党控制的州府已竭尽所能把一切都做了，也准备好要作出一番改变。同时，伊利诺斯州的选民们也想要看到一些改变，于是那年十一月，民主党人重新掌握了州府斯普林菲尔德的大权。
　　奥巴马于2006年秋季出版了《无畏的希望》一书，并成功地将最初宣传说的新书签售会变成了面向新罕布什尔州初选的大进军。书中，奥巴马轻描淡写地说出了任何一个总统候选人都应该具备的典型条件：“长期的躁动，无论事情发展的态势有多么好，也无法意识到好景就在面前。”他曾试图将这变成他的优势。“我知道我并没有花太多的时间学习在华盛顿的生存之道，”他宣布要竞选总统时曾经说过，“但是我在那里待的时间足够让我知道华盛顿必须作出改变。”
　　从他的人生轨迹，总能看到他稍占先机的故事。在他的孩童时代，以及成人之后，他一直在探寻自己族裔文化的意义，他的身份则一次又一次指引着他，给他带来好运。每个人活着都要面对在世间寻找自己一席之地的挑战，而奥巴马则需要加倍努力才能找到属于他的位置，而很久以前他就认定，属于自己的将是个显赫之位，政坛舞台上的一席要地。
　　巴拉克・胡赛因・奥巴马认为全因对命运常规的桀骜不驯，自己才得以生存。他在美国的第五十个州――夏威夷出生并长大成人，这里在许多方面都是思想最自由的地方。如果奥巴马给人的印象有那么点温和的话――假如你一开始没看出他坚韧或雄心勃勃的一面――部分原因可能是由于在他性格形成的时期，他一直住在夏威夷，那时“Live Aloha”就是当地人的生活方式，不像现在变成只为重获更闲适的生活而喊喊的口号。
　　他的母亲斯坦利・安・邓纳姆是个白人，她的父亲是堪萨斯州的一位家具和保险销售员。在她18岁那年，她认识并嫁给了老巴拉克・胡赛因・奥巴马，他过去曾在肯尼亚牧羊，当时成为了夏威夷大学的第一名非洲学生，专攻经济学。那是在20世纪60年代，不同种族通婚在美国大陆将近一半的州仍是不合法的。这对夫妇于1963年离婚，他们的儿子那时才两岁。
　　“从西方学院转到哥伦比亚大学，我的人生发生了深刻的裂变，在那里我的态度变得更认真了，” 奥巴马说道。他在纽约的时候，他的父亲去世了，这给他带来了“一种对自己人生的紧迫感”。他又说道：“那并不意味着当时我出于某种原因突然对政府公职产生了巨大的野心。不过我确实认为在我生命中的那段时间――我在纽约的那两年――我决定了我想要什么，我要在世上留下自己的印记。”
　　他开始在美国黑人的散居之都芝加哥一步一个脚印走出自己的路。他刚到该地时，一个人都不认识，最后却找到了他一生的事业、虔诚的基督教信仰以及最终成为他妻子并为他诞下两个女儿的女人。在芝加哥工作时，他不仅探究了他作为美国黑人的身份，还决心要拿到法律学位，因为他相信那将是为他的政治生涯做的最好的准备。从那时开始，奥巴马就再也没有偏离过他自己设定的人生方向。
　　说到奥巴马就不能不提及同样来自于伊利诺斯州的亚伯拉罕・林肯的名字，这样的相提并论也许一开始你会觉得很荒谬。1861年2月11日，林肯过52周岁生日的前一天，他离开普林菲尔德赴任总统，当时他做出了他能言善辩的一生中最动人的演说。“我在这里居住了将近1/4个世纪，从一名青年变成了老者，”据报道说他曾这样说，“我现在要离开了，不知道什么时候或究竟能不能回来。”
　　而2004年11月8日在斯普林菲尔德，奥巴马私下对同事的辞别并没有这么壮语滔滔，却同样真诚。后来，他最后一次面对斯普林菲尔德的媒体时，有人问他，为什么他已经排除在2008年的全国大选中跟希拉里・罗德姆・克林顿竞逐的可能性。他的答案很干脆且不假思索。“你知道，”奥巴马回答说，“我坚信，在你申请一份工作时就该知道自己正在做什么。而且我认为，如果我真要考虑竞选总统的话，就必须在当参议员之前，从现在就开始准备。有些人也许觉得现在大可以去竞选总统，但我不属于那种人。”
　　然而他是属于那种人的。他确实属于。而且无论他现在要往哪里走，很早很早以前他已经是那种人了。
　　
　　
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