FT社评 希拉里应尽早宣布参选
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.
最近的记者招待会没有给她带来任何好处。希拉里的目的是平息公众对于她在担任美国国务卿时私邮公用的不满，结果她的表现引发了更多的质疑。希拉里的失误突显出两个必要性。首先，她必须尽快宣布参加2016年的总统竞选。其次，她必须认识到遭受此类质疑是所有候选人都避免不了的考验。她闪烁其词的时间越长，受到的压力就会越大。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.
没错，迟迟不宣布参加竞选从战术上来说是有利的。共和党阵营中的候选人选已经人满为患：最新计算是超过20个。看着他们争斗是有好处的。此外，希拉里不太可能在民主党总统候选人提名中遭遇强劲的竞争对手。目前出现的候选人选只有前弗吉尼亚州参议员詹姆斯•韦伯(James Webb)、来自佛蒙特州的“社会主义”民主党人伯尼•桑德斯(Bernie Sanders)以及前马里兰州州长马丁•奥马利(Martin O’Malley)，这些都是次要人物。他们不可能让希拉里感受到威胁。
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.
但最近有爆料称，希拉里通过“设在家中”的服务器收发邮件，并且外国政府向比尔•克林顿(Bill Clinton)全球慈善基金的捐赠存在利益冲突，这让她的困境凸显出来。希拉里的最大威胁是她自己不必要地与媒体搞僵了关系。她越早公布参加竞选越好。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.
按照竞选日程的规定，她应会在某一财季初宣布参选。美国政治重视所谓的“金钱初选”的影响。各方在每一季度末宣布筹集的资金总数。这意味着她要么在4月初、要么在7月初宣布参选。她必须选择4月初。更重要的是，她必须准备回答将会面临的尖锐问题。希拉里“没有保存”3万封私人邮件，意味着她删掉了这些邮件，这只会引起进一步的猜疑。它让人们想起困扰克林顿政府的丑闻，以及先是消失、随后又奇迹般出现的文件。不过现在和那时一样，很可能这些事并没有看上去那么大不了。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.
但希拉里天真地认为，她的共和党对手将会同意只有她才能评判邮件是私人的还是涉及公务的。她必须抢在批评者之前采取行动，让政府律师来评判。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.
无论希拉里选择采取何种行动方式，她在竞选中都将免不了受到人们关于“王朝政治”的质疑。她将被指责享有特权、傲慢和双重标准。她如何回应这些不可避免的质疑，将让选民们了解到她会如何治理国家。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.
美国政治因党派纷争而严重分裂。无论公平与否，希拉里都是最能引发对立的人物之一。如果她继续采取守势，她将无法克服此类障碍。尽管希拉里存在不足，但她竞选总统的资质很强。与两党所有潜在竞争对手相比，她在政界和海外的经历都要丰富得多。正如在2008年被巴拉克•奥巴马(Barack Obama)击败时一样，现在希拉里最大的敌人依然是她自己。迅速宣布自己参加竞选并回应批评者的质疑，将有助于缓解那些怀疑。希拉里现在是时候大踏步走进阳光里了。
