奧巴馬總統暢談失敗經驗 讓我懂得謙卑

President Barack Obama won two straight elections for the White House, but during a talk with students at a town hall on race and sports he discussed a few times when he did not always come out on top.

美國總統貝拉克·奧巴馬曾連贏兩屆總統大選，但在市政廳舉辦的一場與青年學子的交流座談會中，奧巴馬多次公開提到，自己也並不是一直都佔據上風。

Obama recounted the fallout from his first presidential debate in his ultimately successful 2012 election race against Republican Mitt Romney.

奧巴馬回想起2012年大選時，在首場辯論和共和黨對手米特·羅姆尼脣槍舌戰後的心路歷程。

"I had that first debate, which was roundly panned. Everybody said you were terrible," Obama said at the town hall hosted by ESPN's The Undefeated at North Carolina AT State University.

奧巴馬在運動頻道ESPN旗下網站The Undefeated於北卡羅來納農工州立大學主辦的座談會上表示：“我首場辯論的表現惡評如潮，大家都說我表現很差。”

"What is true is that I've always kind of hated these debate formats, so it wasn't my best performance."

“事實上，我平常就蠻討厭這種辯論形式，所以沒交出最好表現。”

He said what really inspired him to "dig deep" for the second debate was seeing young volunteers around the country.

奧巴馬還提到，促使他全力以赴第二場辯論的動力來源於當時全國各地的青年志願者們。

While they put on a brave face, Obama said he could tell they were worried about the race.

雖然他們故作堅強，但是自己能夠從他們的臉上看出擔心選情的情緒。

"I just thought to myself these kids are pouring their hearts and souls into making calls and knocking on doors, I'm not going to disappoint them," he said.

奧巴馬說道：“我跟我自己說，這些孩子們付諸了全部的心力，又是打電話，又是敲門拉票，我不能讓他們失望。”

Obama also described his experience losing his first campaign for a U.S. congressional seat in 2000 and how it humbled him. Without that defeat, Obama said he did not believe he would have went on to win his Senate race in 2004.

奧巴馬也提到2000年首次參選國會失利讓他懂得謙卑，要不是有那次失敗經驗，他可能沒辦法再接再厲，進而在2004年贏得聯邦參議院席次。

"What is true about politics that is similar to sports, though, is when you lose, you lose publicly," he said. "It's a hard feeling. One of the benefits of defeat is to take some of the vanity out of what it is you're trying to achieve."

“政治和運動差不多的地方就在於，失敗時，會搞得衆所皆知，那感覺不好受。被打敗的好處之一，就是你對努力想達成的目標，會少了點虛榮之心。”