FT社評 希拉里應儘早宣佈參選
Enough already. Hillary Clinton has not even launched her 2016 campaign, yet exhaustion has already set in. Neither official nor unofficial, her putative White House bid inhabits the worst of both worlds. It occupies a half-light in which everyone knows she plans to run yet she can still cite privacy to duck the hard questions.
Last week’s press conference did her no favours. Mrs Clinton’s aim was to quell the crescendo over her use of a private email account for official correspondence when she was US secretary of state. Her performance raised more questions than it answered. Mrs Clinton’s miscue underlined two imperatives. First, she must declare her candidacy as soon as possible. Second, she must accept that such grilling is an unavoidable ordeal for all candidates. The longer she prevaricates, the more shrill it will become.
最近的記者招待會沒有給她帶來任何好處。希拉里的目的是平息公衆對於她在擔任美國國務卿時私郵公用的不滿，結果她的表現引發了更多的質疑。希拉里的失誤突顯出兩個必要性。首先，她必須儘快宣佈參加2016年的總統競選。其次，她必須認識到遭受此類質疑是所有候選人都避免不了的考驗。她閃爍其詞的時間越長，受到的壓力就會越大。To be sure, there were tactical advantages to having delayed her launch. The Republican field is already crowded with hopefuls: more than 20 at the latest count. There are benefits to watching them fight it out. Moreover, Mrs Clinton is unlikely to face any serious rival for the Democratic nomination. The only names to have cropped up — James Webb, the former Virginia senator, Bernie Sanders, the “socialist” Democrat from Vermont, and Martin O’Malley, the ex-governor of Maryland — are marginal figures. None is likely to make Mrs Clinton feel the heat.
沒錯，遲遲不宣佈參加競選從戰術上來說是有利的。共和黨陣營中的候選人選已經人滿爲患：最新計算是超過20個。看着他們爭鬥是有好處的。此外，希拉里不太可能在民主黨總統候選人提名中遭遇強勁的競爭對手。目前出現的候選人選只有前弗吉尼亞州參議員詹姆斯•韋伯(James Webb)、來自佛蒙特州的“社會主義”民主黨人伯尼•桑德斯(Bernie Sanders)以及前馬里蘭州州長馬丁•奧馬利(Martin O’Malley)，這些都是次要人物。他們不可能讓希拉里感受到威脅。
But revelations of Mrs Clinton’s “homebrew” server and conflicts of interest over foreign government donations to the Bill Clinton global philanthropic fund have brought her predicament into sharp relief. Mrs Clinton’s biggest threat is her own needlessly tetchy relations with the media. The sooner she puts her candidacy into the open the better.
但最近有爆料稱，希拉里通過“設在家中”的服務器收發郵件，並且外國政府向比爾•克林頓(Bill Clinton)全球慈善基金的捐贈存在利益衝突，這讓她的困境凸顯出來。希拉里的最大威脅是她自己不必要地與媒體搞僵了關係。她越早公佈參加競選越好。The dictates of the presidential calendar suggest she do this at the start of a financial quarter. US politics sets great store by the effects of the so-called money primary. Fundraising totals are announced at the end of each quarter. That implies she will declare either in early April or early July. She must choose early April. More important, she must be ready to take the hard questions that will come her way. The fact that Mrs Clinton did “not save” 30,000 private emails, meaning she deleted them, has only raised suspicions further. It reminded people of the scandals that dogged her husband’s administration and the files that vanished, only miraculously to reappear. Then, as quite probably now, there was less to them than met the eye.
按照競選日程的規定，她應會在某一財季初宣佈參選。美國政治重視所謂的“金錢初選”的影響。各方在每一季度末宣佈籌集的資金總數。這意味着她要麼在4月初、要麼在7月初宣佈參選。她必須選擇4月初。更重要的是，她必須準備回答將會面臨的尖銳問題。希拉里“沒有保存”3萬封私人郵件，意味着她刪掉了這些郵件，這隻會引起進一步的猜疑。它讓人們想起困擾克林頓政府的醜聞，以及先是消失、隨後又奇蹟般出現的文件。不過現在和那時一樣，很可能這些事並沒有看上去那麼大不了。But Mrs Clinton is naive to believe her Republican detractors will accept that she should be sole arbiter of which emails qualified as private or public. She must step ahead of her critics and ask government lawyers to decide.
但希拉里天真地認爲，她的共和黨對手將會同意只有她才能評判郵件是私人的還是涉及公務的。她必須搶在批評者之前採取行動，讓政府律師來評判。In whatever manner Mrs Clinton chooses to act, her campaign will be dogged by scepticism about dynasty. She will be accused of entitlement, arrogance and double standards. How she responds to this inevitable barrage will give voters an idea of how she would govern.
無論希拉里選擇採取何種行動方式，她在競選中都將免不了受到人們關於“王朝政治”的質疑。她將被指責享有特權、傲慢和雙重標準。她如何迴應這些不可避免的質疑，將讓選民們瞭解到她會如何治理國家。US politics is deeply riven along party lines. Fairly or not, Mrs Clinton is one of its most polarising figures. She will be unable to overcome such handicaps if she remains in a defensive crouch. In spite of Mrs Clinton’s shortcomings, her White House credentials are strong. She has considerably more experience in office, and overseas, than any potential rival in either party. Today, as in 2008 when she was beaten by Barack Obama, she remains her own worst enemy. Declaring her candidacy soon and answering critics would help allay those doubts. It is time for her to stride out into the daylight.
美國政治因黨派紛爭而嚴重分裂。無論公平與否，希拉里都是最能引發對立的人物之一。如果她繼續採取守勢，她將無法克服此類障礙。儘管希拉里存在不足，但她競選總統的資質很強。與兩黨所有潛在競爭對手相比，她在政界和海外的經歷都要豐富得多。正如在2008年被巴拉克•奧巴馬(Barack Obama)擊敗時一樣，現在希拉里最大的敵人依然是她自己。迅速宣佈自己參加競選並回應批評者的質疑，將有助於緩解那些懷疑。希拉里現在是時候大踏步走進陽光裏了。
