【英语生活】奥巴马——褒尽贬来？

Until recently, if you were listing the strengths of Barack Obama and his administration, you would have emphasised the president's calm, controlled demeanour and the competence of the people around him – a welcome contrast, in both respects, to the previous administration. In the blink of an eye, this has turned upside-down. Friends and foes are accusing Mr Obama's White House of multi-dimensional bungling and are holding the president's temperament up to ridicule.

Much of the criticism is unfair. Some of it is ridiculous. But this does not mean it will not stick.

The still unfolding disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is the main cause, though not the only one. It is too soon to know how effective the latest attempt to stop the leak will be, but the likely environmental damage from oil that has already escaped is causing ever mounting alarm. The situation has been worsening for weeks, critics point out, yet the White House has seemed only semi-engaged. They complain that Mr Obama's leadership has been ineffective and indeed barely visible. He should have pushed BP aside; he should have put the military in charge; he should have conveyed a greater sense of urgency; he should have shown he “gets it”.

Once a theme of this sort is established, entirely different setbacks can be slotted in. Before you know it you have a syndrome.

The White House is being harried for offering jobs in the administration to a couple of contestants in upcoming elections, with the aim of making things easier for its preferred candidates. Nobody denies that this is standard practice in Washington. Still, depending on how the offers were pitched, it is possible that there were technical breaches of the law. Also, it looks bad when a White House that promised to be open and straight with the electorate does what every other White House has done and uses patronage to influence an election.

No doubt this is why Mr Obama's team has been reluctant to come clean. Confirming the US political adage that it is not the act that counts but the cover-up, the administration has squirmed and prevaricated about its job offers. As a result, these petty scandals have dragged on and assumed exaggerated importance as part of a supposed wider pattern of indecision, obfuscation, popular disconnection and political incompetence.

And so it goes on. Quite what the administration should have said or done about Israel's attack on the protest flotilla attempting to break the blockade of Gaza was unclear, at least in the first instance. For one thing, the facts were in dispute and needed to be established. But for purposes of commentary there was no need to wait. By now the narrative was laid down. Where is the president? What is he going to do? Why is he vacillating?

The criticism of Mr Obama's handling of the oil spill has been especially and flamboyantly unreasonable. So far as capping the leak is concerned, the relevant expertise resides with BP and the other oil companies. The notion that they should be “pushed aside” is risible. In any case, of course, the administration is in charge – overseeing the operation, as opposed to directing it in detail, which is as it should be. A deepwater drilling moratorium is in place and a thoroughgoing review of the regulatory regime is under way. The White House has been active in mobilising resources to contain damage to the coastline.

Could more be done? Louisiana's governor Bobby Jindal deplores the delay in building sand barriers to act as an extra line of defence – but there are differences of opinion about the utility of that approach, which even advocates admit will take months to execute. Good-faith disputes over priorities and what is feasible cannot support accusations of negligence or indolence.

Actually, many critics admit that their complaints are unfounded even as they lodge them. They say, in so many words, “I've no idea what more the president can do. Why is he not doing more?” Over the past week or so, the opinion pages of US newspapers have raised this fatuous ventilation almost to the level of mass hysteria.

The view seems to be that staying calm in a crisis is all very well, except in a crisis. Then, the president must radiate rage and fear, pretend to direct operations, race about uselessly, weeping and hugging as he goes, doing stuff that will not help and might make things worse. In addition, as Maureen Dowd of the New York Times recommends, Mr Obama must pay attention to “the paternal aspect of the presidency”. Does Ms Dowd want Mr Obama to be her daddy?

The interesting question is how far such sentiments reflect the views of US voters at large – and whether, looking farther ahead, this sudden deluge of media criticism might change the country's opinion of Mr Obama. According to polls, support for the president has fallen a lot over the past year, as his policies have divided the country and sent independents to the Republican camp. Nonetheless, his approval rating had recently levelled off at a little under 50 per cent and the most recent Gallup poll, for instance, shows no sudden new collapse.

This could change. Given the recent intensity of criticism from all quarters, one might expect it to. We shall see. Without meaning to set the bar too low, one hopes that US voters are more grown-up than some of their commentators.

就在不久前，如果让你列举美国总统巴拉克·奥巴马(Barack Obama)及其政府的优点，你还会强调他的冷静、举止克制、及其领导班子的能力——无论从哪方面讲，都比前任政府强多了。可转眼间，情况就彻底颠倒了过来。无论敌友，都在指责奥巴马政府把各个层面的问题都搞得一团糟，对他的脾性也大加嘲讽。

许多指责都是不公平的，有一些甚至相当荒谬。但这并不是说它们不会起作用。

墨西哥湾仍在蔓延的灾难是舆论突变的主要原因，尽管非唯一原因。要说清楚阻止泄漏的最新举措到底会有多大效果，目前还为时尚早，但已泄漏石油可能造成的环境危害正日益引起人们的恐慌。批评人士指出，几周来情况在不断恶化，但白宫似乎并没有全身心投入行动。他们抱怨，奥巴马的领导不起作用，甚至几乎觉察不到。他应该把英国石油(BP)推到一旁；他应该让军方负责此事；他应该传递出更强烈的紧迫感；他应该表现出“一切尽在掌握”的姿态。

一旦确立了这种主调，就可以据此套用上全然不同的说辞。不知不觉间，你就患上了综合症。

奥巴马政府最近正为“劝退”事件焦头烂额：美国的中期选举即将到来，而白宫向数名参选者提供政府工作职位，希望为自己的优先候选人扫清障碍。没人否认这是华盛顿的惯常手段。尽管如此，白宫仍有可能在技术层面上存在违法行为，而这要取决于它开出的条件。此外，一个承诺要对选民开诚布公的政府，行事却与以往任何一届政府无异，还利用手中的任命权来影响选举，其影响是恶劣的。

这无疑是奥巴马团队迟迟不愿坦白的原因。一提到提供的职位，奥巴马政府就局促不安，闪烁其辞，由此印证了美国政界的一句格言：重要的不是行动，而是掩盖真相。结果，这些无足轻重的丑闻一拖再拖，重要性遭到夸大，最终在人们心中形成了一个更广泛的印象：政府优柔寡断、头脑混乱、脱离民众、政治上不称职。

情况就这样继续着。就以色列袭击试图突破加沙封锁线的救援船队的事件，奥巴马政府应该说些什么或做些什么并不好说，至少一开始如此。首先，事实真相存在争议，有待澄清。但若要进行评论，就没必要等下去。到如今，对事件的阐述已经清楚了。总统在哪里？他打算做什么？为何还在犹豫不决？

对于奥巴马对漏油事件的处理，人们的批评尤其夸大得没有道理。就遏制漏油而言，相关专业技能都掌握在BP和其它石油公司手中。应该把它们“推到一边”的想法可笑至极。不管怎样，奥巴马政府负起了责任——监督整个行动，而不是事无巨细地指导，事情也本该如此。白宫已宣布暂停深水钻井，并开始彻底审查监管体制。政府一直积极调动各方资源，遏制对海岸线的伤害。

政府还能做得更多吗？政府迟迟不修建沙护堤，作为又一道防御线，路易斯安那州州长博比·金达尔(Bobby Jindal)对此深感遗憾。但人们对于这种方法的效用存在分歧——就连其倡导者也承认，这项工程需要数月时间才能完成。有关轻重缓急和可行方案的善意争论，并不能支持对政府玩忽职守或行动不积极的指责。

实际上，许多批评人士甚至在一开始就承认，他们的抱怨没有事实根据。他们坦言，“我完全不知道总统还能做些什么。他为什么不再多做些什么？”过去几天，一些美国报纸的评论版几乎把这种无聊的讨论推到了集体癔症的程度。

他们的观点似乎是，在危机中保持冷静尽管很好，但这毕竟是危机。因此，奥巴马必须大动肝火，面露恐惧，装模作样地指导行动，毫无意义地四处奔走，一路垂泪，向民众张开怀抱，做一些于事无补的事情，并有可能让情况变得更糟。此外，正如《纽约时报》(New York Times)专栏作家莫琳·多德(Maureen Dowd)所建议的，奥巴马必须重视“总统职位的家长一面”。多德是希望奥巴马作她的爸爸吗？

有趣的问题是，这种情绪在多大程度上反映了美国普通选民的意见——如果将眼光放远一些的话，这种媒体突然竞相发难的情况是否会改变美国对奥巴马的看法。根据民调，过去一年内，随着奥巴马的政策将国民一分为二，把无党派人士推向了共和党阵营，其支持率已大幅下降。尽管如此，最近他的支持率一直稳定在略低于50%，而最新的盖洛普民意调查(Gallup Poll)显示，其支持率没有出现新的骤跌。

这种形势有可能改变。鉴于最近各方人士群情激愤，人们有理由这样想。让我们拭目以待吧。人们无意把目标定得太低，只是希望美国选民能比有些时事评论家更成熟一些。

译者/陈云飞