Michael Lewis: Obama’s Way

To understand how air-force navigator Tyler Stark ended up in a thornbush in the Libyan desert in March 2011, one must understand what it’s like to be president of the United States—and this president in particular.

要了解 2011 年 3 月空军领航员泰勒·斯塔克 (Tyler Stark) 是如何陷入利比亚沙漠的荆棘丛中的，我们必须了解成为美国总统（尤其是这位总统）的感受。

Hanging around Barack Obama for six months, in the White House, aboard Air Force One, and on the basketball court, Michael Lewis learns the reality of the Nobel Peace Prize winner who sent Stark into combat.

迈克尔·刘易斯在巴拉克·奥巴马身边待了六个月，在白宫、在空军一号上、在篮球场上，了解了这位诺贝尔和平奖获得者将斯塔克送上战场的真相。

E ven af­ter his parachute opened, Tyler Stark sensed he was coming down too fast.

即使降落伞打开后，泰勒·史塔克仍感觉自己下降得太快了。

The last thing he’d heard was the pilot saying, “Bailout!

他听到的最后一句话是飞行员说：“紧急救援！

Bailout!

救助！

Bail—” Before the third call was finished, there’d come the violent kick in the rear from the ejector seat, then a rush of cool air.

保释——”第三次呼叫还没结束，弹射座椅上就传来了后部猛烈的踢击声，然后是一阵凉风。

They called it “opening shock” for a reason.

他们称其为“开盘冲击”是有原因的。

He was disoriented.

他迷失了方向。

A minute earlier, when the plane had started to spin—it felt like a car hitting a patch of ice—his first thought had been that everything was going to be fine: My first mission, I had my first close call.

一分钟前，当飞机开始旋转时——感觉就像一辆汽车撞到了一块冰上——他的第一个想法是一切都会好起来的：我的第一个任务，我第一次险些遇难。

He’d since changed his mind.

从那以后他改变了主意。

He could see the red light of his jet’s rocket fading away and also, falling more slowly, the pilot’s parachute.

他可以看到喷气式飞机火箭的红光逐渐消失，飞行员的降落伞也以更慢的速度落下。

He went immediately to his checklist: he untangled himself from his life raft, then checked the canopy of his chute and saw the gash.

他立即查看了检查单：他从救生筏上解开，然后检查了降落伞的顶篷，看到了伤口。

That’s why he was coming down too fast.

这就是为什么他下降得太快了。

How fast he couldn’t say, but he told himself he’d have to execute a perfect landing.

他不能说有多快，但他告诉自己他必须完美着陆。

It was the middle of the night.

那是半夜。

The sky was black.

天空一片漆黑。

Below his feet he could see a few lights and houses, but mainly it was just desert.

在他的脚下，他可以看到一些灯光和房屋，但主要是沙漠。

When he was two years old, Tyler Stark had told his parents he wanted to fly, like his grandfather who had been shot down by the Germans over Austria.

当泰勒·史塔克两岁时，他告诉父母他想飞翔，就像他的祖父在奥地利上空被德国人击落一样。

His parents didn’t take him too seriously until he went to college, at Colorado State University, when on the first day of school he had enrolled in the air-force R.O.T.C.

直到他进入科罗拉多州立大学上大学之前，他的父母并没有太认真地对待他，开学第一天他就报名参加了空军后备军官训练队。

program.

程序。

A misdiagnosis about his eyesight killed his dreams of being a pilot and forced him into the backseat, as a navigator.

对他视力的误诊扼杀了他成为飞行员的梦想，并迫使他退居后座，成为一名领航员。

At first he was crushed by the news, but then he realized that, while an air-force pilot might be assigned to fly cargo planes or even drones, the only planes with navigators in them were fighter jets.

起初他对这个消息感到震惊，但后来他意识到，虽然空军飞行员可能被指派驾驶货机甚至无人机，但唯一配备导航仪的飞机是战斗机。

So the mix-up about his eyesight had been a blessing in disguise.

所以他视力的混乱是因祸得福。

The first years of his air-force career he’d spent on bases in Florida and North Carolina.

他空军生涯的最初几年是在佛罗里达州和北卡罗来纳州的基地度过的。

In 2009 they’d shipped him to England, and to a position where he might see action.

2009年，他们把他送到了英格兰，并去了一个他可能会参加比赛的位置。

And on the night of March 21, 2011, Captain Tyler Stark took off in an F-15 from a base in Italy, with a pilot he’d only just met, on his first combat mission.

2011 年 3 月 21 日晚上，泰勒·斯塔克上尉驾驶一架 F-15 从意大利的一个基地起飞，带着一名他刚刚认识的飞行员，执行他的第一次战斗任务。

He now had reasons to think it might also be his last.

他现在有理由认为这也可能是他的最后一次。

Even so, as he floated down, he felt almost calm.

即便如此，当他飘落下来时，他却感到近乎平静。

The night air was cool, and there was no sound, only awesome silence.

夜晚的空气很凉爽，没有任何声音，只有可怕的寂静。

He didn’t really know why he’d been sent here, to Libya, in the first place.

首先，他真的不知道自己为什么被派到利比亚。

He knew his assignment, his specific mission.

他知道他的任务，他的具体使命。

But he didn’t know the reason for it.

但他不知道其中的原因。

He’d never met a Libyan.

他从未见过利比亚人。

Drifting high over the desert he had no sense that he was at once an expression of an idea framed late one night in the White House by the president himself, writing with a No. 2 pencil, and also, suddenly, a threat to that idea.

飘浮在沙漠的高空上，他没有意识到自己既表达了总统本人在白宫深夜用二号铅笔书写的一个想法，又突然对这个想法构成了威胁。

He didn’t sense these invisible threads in his existence, only the visible ones yoking him to his torn parachute.

他感觉不到自己存在中存在着这些看不见的线，只有那些看得见的线将他束缚在撕裂的降落伞上。

His thoughts were only of survival.

他的想法只有生存。

He realized, If I can see my plane exploding, and my chute in the air, so can the enemy.

他意识到，如果我能看到我的飞机爆炸，我的降落伞在空中爆炸，那么敌人也能看到。

He’d just turned 27—one of only three facts about himself, along with his name and rank, that he was now prepared to divulge if captured.

他刚刚满 27 岁——关于他自己的仅有的三个事实之一，还有他的名字和军衔，他现在准备在被捕时透露这些事实。

He scanned the earth beneath his dangling feet.

他扫视着悬空的脚下的大地。

He was going to hit hard, and there was nothing he could do about it.

他要出手重击，但他却无能为力。

A t nine o’clock one Saturday morning I made my way to the Diplomatic Reception Room, on the ground floor of the White House.

一个星期六早上九点，我前往白宫一楼的外交接待室。

I’d asked to play in the president’s regular basketball game, in part because I wondered how and why a 50-year-old still played a game designed for a 25-year-old body, in part because a good way to get to know someone is to do something with him.

我要求参加总统的常规篮球比赛，部分原因是我想知道一个 50 岁的人如何以及为何仍然参加为 25 岁身体设计的比赛，部分原因是了解某人的一个好方法就是与他一起做某事。

I hadn’t the slightest idea what kind of a game it was.

我根本不知道这是一款什么样的游戏。

The first hint came when a valet passed through bearing, as if they were sacred objects, a pair of slick red-white-and-blue Under Armour high-tops with the president’s number (44) on the side.

当一名贴身男仆走过时，第一个暗示就出现了，那双光滑的红白蓝Under Armour高帮鞋仿佛是神圣的物品，侧面印着总统的号码（44）。

Then came the president, looking like a boxer before a fight, in sweats and slightly incongruous black rubber shower shoes.

然后是总统，穿着汗衫和略微不协调的黑色橡胶淋浴鞋，看起来就像拳击手在比赛前。

As he climbed into the back of a black S.U.V., a worried expression crossed his face.

当他爬进一辆黑色SUV的后座时，脸上闪过一丝担忧的表情。

“I forgot my mouth guard,” he said.

“我忘了带护齿套，”他说。

Your mouth guard?

你的护嘴器？

I think.

我认为。

Why would you need a mouth guard?

为什么需要护齿套？

“Hey, Doc,” he shouted to the van holding the medical staff that travels with him wherever he goes.

“嘿，医生，”他对着载有医护人员的货车喊道，无论他走到哪里，车上都伴随着他。

“You got my mouth guard?” The doc had his mouth guard.

“你有我的护齿套吗？”医生戴着护齿套。

Obama relaxed back in his seat and said casually that he didn’t want to get his teeth knocked out this time, “since we’re only 100 days away.” From the election, he meant, then he smiled and showed me which teeth, in some previous basketball game, had been knocked out.

奥巴马放松地靠在座位上，漫不经心地说，这次他不想被打掉牙齿，“因为距离我们只剩下100天了。”他的意思是，从选举开始，然后他微笑着向我展示了在之前的一场篮球比赛中被打掉的牙齿。

“Exactly what kind of game is this?” I asked, and he laughed and told me not to worry.

“这到底是一款什么样的游戏？”我问，他笑了，告诉我不要担心。

He doesn’t.

他不知道。

“What happens is, as I get older, the chances I’m going to play well go down.

“随着我年龄的增长，我打得好的机会就会下降。

When I was 30 there was, like, a one-in-two chance.

当我30岁的时候，有大约二分之一的机会。

By the time I was 40 it was more like one in three or one in four.” He used to focus on personal achievement, but as he can no longer achieve so much personally, he’s switched to trying to figure out how to make his team win.

当我 40 岁的时候，这个比例更像是三分之一或四分之一。”他曾经专注于个人成就，但由于他个人无法再取得如此大的成就，他转而试图找出如何让他的球队获胜。

In his decline he’s maintaining his relevance and sense of purpose.

在他的衰落中，他仍然保持着自己的相关性和使命感。

Basketball hadn’t appeared on the president’s official schedule, and so we traveled the streets of Washington unofficially, almost normally.

篮球并没有出现在总统的官方日程中，所以我们几乎像平常一样非正式地走遍了华盛顿的街道。

A single police car rode in front of us, but there were no motorcycles or sirens or whirring lights: we even stopped at red lights.

一辆警车在我们前面行驶，但没有摩托车、警报器或呼呼的灯光：我们甚至在红灯时停下来。

It still took only five minutes to get to the court inside the F.B.I.

到达联邦调查局内的法庭仍然只用了五分钟。

The president’s game rotates around several federal courts, but he prefers the F.B.I.’s because it is a bit smaller than a regulation court, which reduces also the advantages of youth.

总统的比赛围绕几个联邦法院进行，但他更喜欢联邦调查局，因为它比监管法院要小一些，这也减少了年轻人的优势。

A dozen players were warming up.

十几名球员正在热身。

I recognized Arne Duncan, the former captain of the Harvard basketball team and current secretary of education.

我认出了哈佛篮球队前队长、现任教育部长阿恩·邓肯。

Apart from him and a couple of disturbingly large and athletic guys in their 40s, everyone appeared to be roughly 28 years old, roughly six and a half feet tall, and the possessor of a 30-inch vertical leap.

除了他和几个40多岁的高大健壮的家伙之外，每个人看起来都在28岁左右，身高大约六英尺半，并且拥有30英寸的垂直弹跳能力。

It was not a normal pickup basketball game; it was a group of serious basketball players who come together three or four times each week.

这不是一场普通的篮球比赛；这是一场普通的篮球比赛。这是一群认真的篮球运动员，每周聚在一起三到四次。

Obama joins when he can.

奥巴马会尽可能加入。

“How many of you played in college?” I asked the only player even close to my height.

“你们中有多少人在大学打过球？”我问了唯一一个和我身高相近的球员。

“All of us,” he replied cheerfully and said he’d played point guard at Florida State.

“我们所有人，”他高兴地回答，并说他曾在佛罗里达州立大学打控球后卫。

“Most everyone played pro too—except for the president.” Not in the N.B.A., he added, but in Europe and Asia.

“除了总统之外，大多数人都打过职业比赛。”他补充说，不是在NBA，而是在欧洲和亚洲。

Overhearing the conversation, another player tossed me a jersey and said, “That’s my dad on your shirt.

另一名球员无意中听到了谈话，扔给我一件球衣并说道：“你球衣上的那是我爸爸。

He’s the head coach at Miami.” Having highly developed fight-or-flight instincts, I realized in only about 4 seconds that I was in an uncomfortable situation, and it took only another 10 to figure out just how deeply I did not belong.

他是迈阿密的主教练。”凭借高度发达的战斗或逃跑本能，我只用了大约 4 秒就意识到自己处于一种不舒服的境地，又花了 10 秒才弄清楚我到底有多不属于这里。

Oh well, I thought, at least I can guard the president.

哦，好吧，我想，至少我可以保护总统。

Obama played in high school, on a team that won the Hawaii state championship.

奥巴马在高中时效力的球队赢得了夏威夷州冠军。

But he hadn’t played in college, and even in high school he hadn’t started.

但他在大学里没有打过球，甚至在高中时他也没有开始打球。

Plus, he hadn’t played in several months, and he was days away from his 51st birthday: how good could he be?

另外，他已经好几个月没有打比赛了，距离他的 51 岁生日还有几天：他能有多出色？

T he president ran a couple of laps around the gym, then shouted, “Let’s go!” He himself divvied up the teams so each one had roughly the same number of giants and the same number of old people.

总统绕着体育馆跑了几圈，然后喊道：“走吧！”他亲自将各队进行了划分，使每队的巨人数量和老人数量大致相同。

Having put me on his team, he turned to me and said, “We’ll sit you first, until we get a little bit of a lead.” I thought he was joking, but actually he wasn’t; he was as serious as a heart attack.

将我加入他的团队后，他转向我说：“我们会让你先坐，直到我们取得一点领先。”我以为他是在开玩笑，但实际上他不是；他的病情严重得像心脏病发作一样。

I was benched.

我被坐在板凳上。

I took my place in the wooden stands, along with a few of the other players, and the White House photographer, the medical team, the Secret Service, and the guy with the buzz cut who carried the nuclear football, to watch the president play.

我和其他几位球员、白宫摄影师、医疗团队、特勤局以及拿着核足球的留着寸头的家伙一起坐在木看台上观看总统比赛。

Obama was 20 or more years older than most of them, and probably not as physically gifted, though it was hard to say because of the age differences.

奥巴马比他们中的大多数人年长 20 岁或更多，而且可能没有那么有身体天赋，尽管由于年龄差异很难说。

No one held back, no one deferred.

没有人犹豫，没有人推迟。

Guys on his team dribbled past him and ignored the fact he was wide open.

他队里的球员运球超过了他，却忽略了他处于空位的事实。

When he drives through the streets, crowds part, but when he drives to the basket large, hostile men slide over to cut him off.

当他开车穿过街道时，人群会分开，但当他冲向篮筐时，敌对的大个子就会过来拦住他。

It’s revealing that he would seek out a game like this but even more that others would give it to him: no one watching would have been able to guess which guy was president.

很明显，他会寻找这样的游戏，但更重要的是其他人会给他这样的游戏：没有人观看会猜出哪个人是总统。

As a player on the other team, who must have outweighed Obama by a hundred pounds, backed the president of the United States down and knocked the crap out of him, all for the sake of a single layup, I leaned over to the former Florida State point guard.

作为另一支球队的球员，他们的体重肯定比奥巴马高出一百磅，支持美国总统并把他打得落花流水，这一切都是为了一个上篮，我向这位前佛罗里达州立大学控球后卫倾斜。

“If you take it easy on him, you’re not invited back,” he explained.

“如果你对他放松一点，你就不会被邀请回来，”他解释道。

I thought to myself, It must be hard not to take it easy on the president.

我心里想，要不对总统放松一定很难。

The point guard laughed, turned to another guy on the bench, and said, “Remember Rey?”

控球后卫笑了，转向板凳上的另一个人说：“还记得雷伊吗？”

“Rey pump-faked, turned, and just connected with the president right in the mouth,” the other guy said.

“雷伊做出假动作，转身，然后就在嘴里与总统联系在一起，”另一个人说。

“Gave him 16 stitches.”

“给他缝了16针。”

Obama could find a perfectly respectable game with his equals in which he could shoot and score and star, but this is the game he wants to play.

奥巴马可以找到一场与他的对手完全受人尊敬的比赛，他可以投篮、得分和明星，但这就是他想要玩的比赛。

It’s ridiculously challenging, and he has very little space to maneuver, but he appears happy.

这极具挑战性，而且他的回旋余地很小，但他看起来很高兴。

He’s actually just good enough to be useful to his team, as it turns out.

事实证明，他实际上已经足够优秀，足以对他的团队有所帮助。

Not flashy, but he slides in to take charges, passes well, and does a lot of little things well.

并不华丽，但他能够插上进攻，传球出色，并且在很多小事情上做得很好。

The only risk he takes is his shot, but he shoots so seldom, and so carefully, that it actually isn’t much of a risk at all.

他唯一冒的风险就是投篮，但他很少投篮，而且非常小心，所以实际上根本没有太大的风险。

(He smiles when he misses; when he makes one, he looks even more serious.) “Spacing is big.

（投丢时他会微笑；投中时，他看起来更加严肃。） “间距很大。

He knows where to go,” said one of the other players as we watched.

他知道该去哪里，”我们观看时的其他一名球员说道。

“And unlike a lot of lefties, he can go to his right.”

“与许多左撇子不同的是，他可以向右走。”

And he chattered constantly.

而且他还不停地喋喋不休。

“You can’t leave him open like that!” …

“你不能让他就这样敞开着！” …

“Money!” …

“钱！” ……

“Take that shot!” His team jumped ahead, mainly because it took fewer stupid shots.

“开枪吧！”他的球队领先，主要是因为愚蠢的投篮次数减少了。

When I threw one up I discovered the reason for this.

当我吐出一个时，我发现了其中的原因。

When you are on the president’s basketball team and you take a stupid shot, the president of the United States screams at you.

当你在总统的篮球队中，如果你投了一个愚蠢的球，美国总统就会对你尖叫。

“Don’t be looking to the sidelines all sheepish,” he hollered at me.

“别羞怯地在一旁看着，”他对我喊道。

“You got to get back and play D!”

“你必须回去玩D！”

A t some point I discreetly moved up to where I belonged, into the stands beside the guy who was operating the clock.

在某个时刻，我小心翼翼地走到了我所属的地方，进入了看台上那个操作时钟的人旁边。

His name was Martin Nesbitt.

他的名字叫马丁·内斯比特。

When I had pointed him out to Obama and asked who he was, Obama, sounding like he was about 12 years old, said, “Marty—well, Marty’s my best friend.”

当我向奥巴马指出他并问他是谁时，奥巴马听起来像是 12 岁左右，他说：“马蒂——嗯，马蒂是我最好的朋友。”

Nesbitt does an extremely good impression of a man who could just barely give a shit that his best friend is the president of the United States.

内斯比特给人留下了非常好的印象，他几乎不在乎自己最好的朋友是美国总统。

After the fifth game, with the president’s team up 3–2, guys started drifting toward their gym bags in the way they do when everyone thinks it’s over.

第五场比赛结束后，总统队以 3-2 领先，队员们开始像每个人都认为比赛结束时那样走向自己的健身包。

Nesbitt hooted.

内斯比特大声叫道。

“He’s actually going to take the risk of letting this thing get tied up?

“他居然要冒险让这东西被绑起来？

That’s out of character.”

这不符合性格。”

“Even games we never play.

“即使是我们从不玩的游戏。

Shuffleboard.

沙狐球。

I don’t know how to play shuffleboard.

我不知道如何玩沙狐球。

He doesn’t know how to play shuffleboard.

他不知道如何玩沙狐球。

But if we play, it’s like ‘I can beat you.’”

但如果我们比赛，就会感觉‘我可以打败你。’”

Martin Nesbitt, C.E.O.

马丁·内斯比特，首席执行官

of an airport-parking company, met Obama before Obama ever ran for public office, playing pickup basketball with him in Chicago.

在奥巴马竞选公职之前，他曾在一家机场停车公司工作过，在芝加哥与他一起打篮球。

Well into their friendship he knew next to nothing of Obama’s achievements.

在他们的友谊中，他对奥巴马的成就几乎一无所知。

Obama had neglected to inform him that he had gone to Harvard Law School, for example, or been editor of its Law Review, or really anything that would convey his status off the basketball court.

例如，奥巴马没有告诉他他曾就读于哈佛法学院，或者担任过《法律评论》的编辑，或者任何能够传达他在篮球场外的地位的事情。

“At some point after we’d known each other a long time, he gives me this book he’s written,” said Nesbitt.

“在我们认识很久之后的某个时候，他给了我他写的这本书，”内斯比特说。

“I, you know, just put it up on the shelf.

“我，你知道，只是把它放在架子上。

I thought it was like a self-published thing.

我以为这就像一个自我出版的东西。

I still didn’t know anything about him.

我仍然对他一无所知。

I didn’t care.” One day Marty and his wife were cleaning house, and he found the book on the shelf.

我不在乎。”有一天，马蒂和他的妻子正在打扫房子，他在书架上发现了这本书。

Dreams from My Father, it was called.

它被称为“来自我父亲的梦想”。

“The thing just fell off.

“那东西刚刚掉下来了。

So I opened it and started reading.

于是我打开它并开始阅读。

And I was like, ‘Holy shit, this guy can write.’ I tell my wife.

我当时想，“天哪，这家伙会写。”我告诉我的妻子。

She says, ‘Marty, Barack is going to be president one day.’”

她说，‘马蒂，巴拉克有一天会成为总统。’”

F rom the time his wife goes to bed, around 10 at night, until he finally retires, at 1, Barack Obama enjoys the closest thing he experiences to privacy: no one but him really knows exactly where he is or what he’s up to.

从晚上 10 点左右妻子上床睡觉，到 1 点左右他最终退休，巴拉克·奥巴马享受着他所经历的最接近隐私的事情：除了他之外，没有人真正知道他在哪里或在做什么。

He can’t leave his house, of course, but he can watch ESPN, surf his iPad, read books, dial up foreign leaders in different time zones, and any number of other activities that feel almost normal.

当然，他不能离开家，但他可以看 ESPN、在 iPad 上冲浪、读书、拨打不同时区的外国领导人的电话，以及进行任何其他感觉几乎正常的活动。

He can also wrestle his mind back into the state it would need to be if, say, he wanted to write.

他还可以将自己的思绪拉回到他想要写作时所需的状态。

And so, in a funny way, the president’s day actually starts the night before.

因此，有趣的是，总统的一天实际上是在前一天晚上开始的。

When he awakens at seven, he already has a jump on things.

当他七点醒来时，他已经对事情有了跳跃性的认识。

He arrives at the gym on the third floor of the residence, above his bedroom, at 7:30.

7点30分，他到达了位于公寓三楼卧室楼上的健身房。

He works out until 8:30 (cardio one day, weights the next), then showers and dresses in either a blue or gray suit.

他锻炼到 8:30（一天做有氧运动，第二天举重），然后淋浴并穿上蓝色或灰色的西装。

“My wife makes fun of how routinized I’ve become,” he says.

“我的妻子取笑我变得多么循规蹈矩，”他说。

He’d moved a long way in this direction before he became president, but the office has moved him even further.

在成为总统之前，他已经朝这个方向迈出了一大步，但办公室让他走得更远。

“It’s not my natural state,” he says.

“这不是我的自然状态，”他说。

“Naturally, I’m just a kid from Hawaii.

“当然，我只是一个来自夏威夷的孩子。

But at some point in my life I overcompensated.” After a quick breakfast and a glance at the newspapers—most of which he’s already read on his iPad—he reviews his daily security briefing.

但在我生命中的某个时刻，我补偿过度了。”快速吃完早餐并浏览了报纸（大部分报纸他已经在 iPad 上阅读过）后，他回顾了每日的安全简报。

When he first became president he often was surprised by the secret news; now he seldom is.

当他第一次担任总统时，他经常对秘密消息感到惊讶；现在他很少这样了。

“Maybe once a month.”

“也许一个月一次。”

One summer morning I met him outside the private elevator that brings him down from the residence.

一个夏天的早晨，我在私人电梯外遇见了他，电梯把他从住所送下来。

His morning commute, of roughly 70 yards, started in the ground-floor center hall, and continued past a pair of oil paintings, of Rosalynn Carter and Betty Ford, and through two sets of double doors, guarded by a Secret Service officer.

他早上的通勤路程大约为 70 码，从底层中央大厅开始，继续经过罗莎琳·卡特和贝蒂·福特的两幅油画，然后穿过两扇由一名特勤人员把守的双扇门。

After a short walk along a back porch, guarded by several other men in black, he passed through a set of French doors into the reception area outside the Oval Office.

在其他几名黑衣男子的看守下，他沿着后门廊走了一小段路后，穿过一扇法式门，进入了椭圆形办公室外的接待区。

His secretary, Anita, was already at her desk.

他的秘书安妮塔已经坐在办公桌前。

Anita, he explained, has been with him since he campaigned for the Senate, back in 2004.

他解释说，自从 2004 年他竞选参议员以来，安妮塔就一直和他在一起。

As political attachments go, eight years isn’t a long time; in his case, it counts as forever.

就政治执着而言，八年并不算长；对他来说，这就是永远。

Eight years ago he could have taken a group tour of the White House and no one would have recognized him.

八年前，他可以跟团参观白宫，但没有人会认出他。

Passing Anita, the president walked into the Oval Office.

总统经过安妮塔，走进椭圆形办公室。

“When I’m in Washington I spend half my time in this place,” he said.

“当我在华盛顿时，我一半的时间都花在这个地方，”他说。

“It’s surprisingly comfortable.” During the week he is never alone in the office, but on weekends he can come down and have the place to himself.

“出奇的舒服。”工作日期间，他在办公室里从来不会孤单，但周末他可以下来，独享一个属于自己的地方。

The first time Obama set foot in this room was right after he’d been elected, to pay a call on George Bush.

奥巴马第一次踏入这个房间是在他当选后不久，去拜访乔治·布什。

The second time was the first day he arrived for work—and the first thing he did was call in several junior people who had been with him since long before anyone cared who he was so they might see how it felt to sit in the Oval Office.

第二次是他上班的第一天——他做的第一件事就是召集了几个早在人们关心他是谁之前就和他在一起的下级人员，这样他们就可以看看坐在椭圆形办公室里是什么感觉。

“Let’s just stay normal,” he said to them.

“让我们保持正常，”他对他们说。

W hen a new president is elected, the White House curatorial staff removes everything from the office the departing president put in it, unless they worry it will cause a political stir—in which case they ask the new president.

当新总统当选时，白宫管理人员会从即将离任的总统的办公室中撤走所有物品，除非他们担心这会引起政治骚动——在这种情况下，他们会询问新总统。

Right after the last election they removed a few oil paintings of Texas.

上次选举结束后，他们移除了几幅德克萨斯州的油画。

It took Obama longer than usual to make changes to the office because, as he put it, “we came in when the economy was tanking and our first priority wasn’t redecorating.” Eighteen months into the office he reupholstered the two chairs in his sitting area.

奥巴马花了比平时更长的时间来对办公室进行改造，因为正如他所说，“我们是在经济低迷的时候进来的，我们的首要任务不是重新装修。”入职十八个月后，他重新布置了休息区的两把椅子。

(“The chairs were kind of greasy.

（“椅子有点油腻。

I was starting to think, Folks are going to start talking about us.”) Then he swapped out the antique coffee table for a contemporary one, and the bust of Winston Churchill lent to Bush by Tony Blair for one of Martin Luther King Jr. And he took one look at the bookshelves, filled with china, and thought, This won’t do.

我开始想，人们要开始谈论我们了。”）然后他把古董咖啡桌换成了当代的咖啡桌，把托尼·布莱尔借给布什的温斯顿·丘吉尔的半身像换成了小马丁·路德·金的半身像。他看了一眼书架，里面摆满了瓷器，心想，这不行。

“They had a bunch of plates in there,” he says, a little incredulously.

“里面有一堆盘子，”他有点难以置信地说道。

“I’m not a dish guy.” The dishes he replaced with the original applications for several famous patents and patent models—Samuel Morse’s 1849 model for the first telegraph, for instance, which he pointed to and said, “This is the start of the Internet right here.” Finally, he ordered a new oval rug inscribed with his favorite brief quotations from people he admires.

“我不是一个擅长做菜的人。”他用几项著名专利和专利模型的原始申请替换了这些盘子——例如，塞缪尔·莫尔斯 (Samuel Morse) 1849 年第一部电报机的模型，他指着它说：“这就是互联网的开始。”最后，他订购了一块新的椭圆形地毯，上面刻有他最喜欢的、他敬佩的人的简短语录。

“I had a bunch of quotes that didn’t fit [on the rug],” he admitted.

“我有一堆不适合（放在地毯上）的名言，”他承认。

One quote that did fit, I saw, was a favorite of Martin Luther King Jr.’s: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

我发现马丁·路德·金最喜欢的一句话确实合适：“道德宇宙的弧线很长，但它会趋向正义。”

A nd that’s it—the sum total of the Obamas’ additions and subtractions to his workspace.

就是这样——奥巴马夫妇对他的工作空间进行的增减的总和。

“I tend to be a spare guy anyway,” he said.

“无论如何，我倾向于成为一个闲人，”他说。

But the changes still generated controversy, especially the removal of the Churchill bust, which created so much stupid noise that Mitt Romney on the stump is now pledging that he will return it to the Oval Office.

但这些变化仍然引起了争议，特别是丘吉尔半身像的移除，这引起了如此多愚蠢的噪音，以至于树桩上的米特·罗姆尼现在承诺他将把它归还椭圆形办公室。

He’s kept the desk used by Bush—the one with the secret panel made famous by John-John Kennedy.

他保留了布什用过的桌子——这张桌子上有因约翰·约翰·肯尼迪而闻名的秘密面板。

It had been brought in by Jimmy Car­ter to replace the one with the secret taping system in it, used by Johnson and Nixon.

它是由吉米·卡特引进来取代约翰逊和尼克松使用的带有秘密录音系统的那个。

“Is there a taping system in here?” I asked, gazing up at the crown molding.

“这里有录音系统吗？”我抬头看着皇冠造型问道。

“No,” he said, then added, “It’d be fun to have a taping system.

“不，”他说，然后补充道，“有一个录音系统会很有趣。

It’d be wonderful to have a verbatim rec­ord of history.” Obama doesn’t come across as political or calculating, but every now and then it seems to occur to him how something would sound, if repeated out of context and then handed as a weapon to people who wish him ill.

如果能够逐字记录历史，那就太好了。”奥巴马给人的印象并不政治或精于算计，但他似乎时不时地会想到，如果断章取义地重复某些事情，然后将其作为武器交给那些希望他生病的人，听起来会是什么样子。

“Actually,” he said, “I’ve got to be careful here [about what I say].”

“事实上，”他说，“我必须要小心（关于我所说的话）。”

“When people come here, are they nervous?” I asked him, to change the subject.

“人们来到这里的时候，会紧张吗？”我问他，换个话题。

Even in the White House lobby you can tell who works here and who doesn’t by the sound of their conversation and their body language.

即使在白宫大厅，您也可以通过他们的谈话声音和肢体语言来判断谁在这里工作，谁不在这里工作。

The people who don’t work here have the checked-my-actual-personality-at-the-door look of people on TV for the first time in their lives.

不在这里工作的人有生以来第一次看到电视上的人在门口检查我的真实性格。

In the presence of the president himself even celebrities are so distracted that they cease to notice all else.

在总统本人面前，即使是名人也会心烦意乱，以至于不再注意到其他一切。

He’d make an excellent accomplice to a pickpocket.

他会成为扒手的出色同谋。

“Yes,” he said.

“是的，”他说。

“And what’s true is that it is true of just about everyone who comes here.

“事实是，几乎每个来到这里的人都是如此。

I think that the space affects them.

我认为空间会影响他们。

But when you work here you forget about it.”

但当你在这里工作时，你就会忘记这一点。”

He pulled me down a short hallway toward his private office, the place he goes when he wants his staff to leave him be.

他拉着我沿着一条短走廊走向他的私人办公室，当他希望他的员工离开他时，他就会去那里。

Along the way we passed a few other things he had installed—and that he must know his successor is going to have a hell of a time removing: a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation; an odd, stark snapshot of an old, fat Teddy Roosevelt dragging his horse up a hill (“Even the horse looks tired”); the announcement of the March on Washington on August 28, 1963.

一路上我们还经过了他安装的其他一些东西——他一定知道他的继任者将经历一段艰难的时期才将其拆除：一份《解放黑奴宣言》的副本；一张奇怪而鲜明的照片，照片上是一个又老又胖的泰迪·罗斯福拖着他的马上山（“连马看起来都很累”）； 1963 年 8 月 28 日宣布向华盛顿进军。

We entered his private study, its desk piled high with novels—on top is Julian Barnes’s The Sense of an Ending.

我们走进他的私人书房，桌上堆满了小说——最上面是朱利安·巴恩斯的《结局的感觉》。

He pointed to the patio outside his window.

他指了指窗外的露台。

It was built by Reagan, he says, on a lovely quiet spot in the shade of a giant magnolia.

他说，它是里根建造的，建在巨大木兰树荫下一个可爱安静的地方。

A century ago presidents, when they took office, would auction the contents of the place on the White House lawn.

一个世纪前，总统上任时，会拍卖白宫草坪上的物品。

Sixty-five years ago Harry Truman could rip apart the south side of the White House and build himself a new balcony.

六十五年前，哈里·杜鲁门可以拆掉白宫的南侧，为自己建造一个新阳台。

Thirty years ago Ronald Reagan could create a discreet seating area hidden from public view.

三十年前，罗纳德·里根（Ronald Reagan）可以创建一个隐蔽的座位区，隐藏在公众视野之外。

Today there is no way any president could build anything that would enhance the White House without being accused of violating some sacred site, or turning the place into a country club, or wasting taxpayer money, or, worst of all, being oblivious to appearances.

如今，任何一位总统都不可能在不被指控侵犯某些圣地、或将其变成乡村俱乐部、或浪费纳税人的钱，或者最糟糕的是，不顾外表的情况下，建造出任何能够增强白宫的东西。

To the way it will seem.

看起来就是这样。

Obama looked at the Reagan patio and laughed at the audacity of building it.

奥巴马看着里根的露台，嘲笑建造它的大胆行为。

Crossing the White House lawn on the way out that morning I passed a giant crater, surrounded by heavy machinery.

那天早上，在穿过白宫草坪时，我经过了一个巨大的弹坑，周围都是重型机械。

For the better part of a year hordes of workmen have been digging and building something deep below the White House—though what it is no one who knows will really say.

在一年的大部分时间里，成群结队的工人一直在白宫地下深处挖掘和建造一些东西——尽管没有人知道会真正说出来。

“Infrastructure” is the answer you get when you ask.

当你询问时，你会得到“基础设施”的答案。

But no one really does ask, much less insist on the public’s right to know.

但没有人真正询问，更不用说坚持公众的知情权了。

The president of the United States can’t move a bust in the Oval Office without facing a firestorm of disapproval.

美国总统如果在椭圆形办公室里移动半身像，就会遭到猛烈的反对。

But he can dig a hole deep in his front yard and build an underground labyrinth and no one even asks what he’s up to.

但他可以在前院深挖一个洞，建造一个地下迷宫，甚至没有人问他在做什么。

B ruce and Dorene Stark, parents of Tyler, live in the Denver suburb of Littleton, which is actually bigger than you might think.

泰勒的父母布鲁斯·斯塔克和多琳·斯塔克住在丹佛郊区的利特尔顿，这里实际上比你想象的要大。

In mid-March of last year, when they heard from their son out of the blue, they’d been planning a trip to England to visit him.

去年三月中旬，当他们突然收到儿子的消息时，他们正计划去英国看望他。

“We get this odd e-mail from him,” says Bruce.

“我们收到了他发来的这封奇怪的电子邮件，”布鲁斯说。

“It doesn’t even say, ‘Hi, Mom and Dad.’ It says, ‘I’m no longer in the U.K., and I don’t know when I’ll be back.’” They didn’t know what it meant, but, as Dorene Stark puts it, “you get this creepy feeling.” A week later, on a Monday night, the phone rang.

“它甚至没有说，‘嗨，爸爸妈妈。’它说，‘我不再在英国了，我不知道什么时候会回来。’”他们不知道这意味着什么，但是，正如多琳·斯塔克所说，“你会得到这种令人毛骨悚然的感觉。”一周后的一个星期一晚上，电话响了。

“I’m watching some TV show,” recalls Bruce.

“我正在看一些电视节目，”布鲁斯回忆道。

“I pick up the phone and it says, ‘Out of the area,’ or something like that.” He answered anyway.

“我拿起电话，上面写着‘不在该区域’之类的。”他还是回答了。

“It’s Tyler.

“是泰勒。

He doesn’t say hi or anything.

他没有打招呼什么的。

He just says, ‘Dad.’ And I say, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ He says, ‘I just need you to do me a favor: I’m going to give you a number, and I want you to call it.’ I say, ‘Hold on.

他只是说，“爸爸。”我说，“嘿，怎么了？”他说，“我只需要你帮我一个忙：我会给你一个电话号码，我想让你打电话。”我说，“等一下。”

I don’t have anything to write with.’”

我没有什么可写的。’”

Bruce Stark found pen and paper, then picked up the phone again.

布鲁斯·斯塔克找到了笔和纸，然后再次拿起电话。

Tyler then gave his father the phone number of his air-force base in England.

泰勒随后给了他父亲他在英格兰空军基地的电话号码。

“And then,” remembers Bruce, “he says, ‘I just need you to tell them I’m alive and I’m O.K.’

“然后，”布鲁斯回忆道，“他说，‘我只需要你告诉他们我还活着，我没事。’

“‘What do you mean you’re alive and you’re O.K.?’” asked Bruce, understandably.

“‘你还活着并且一切都好是什么意思？’”布鲁斯问道，这是可以理解的。

But Tyler was already gone.

但泰勒已经走了。

Bruce Stark hung up, called his wife, and told her he’d just had the strangest phone call from Tyler.

布鲁斯·斯塔克挂断电话，给他的妻子打电话，告诉她他刚刚接到了泰勒打来的最奇怪的电话。

“I said to Bruce, ‘Something has happened,’” says Dorene.

“我对布鲁斯说，‘发生了一些事情，’”多琳说。

“As a mother you just get this sixth sense.

“作为一名母亲，你只有第六感。

But Bruce says, ‘Oh no, he sounded fine!’” They still had no idea where in the world their son might be.

但布鲁斯说，‘哦，不，他听起来不错！’”他们仍然不知道他们的儿子可能在世界的哪个地方。

They searched the news for some hint but found nothing, except a lot of coverage of the Fukushima tsunami and growing nuclear disaster.

他们在新闻中寻找一些线索，但除了大量报道福岛海啸和日益严重的核灾难之外，什么也没找到。

“I have a pretty good relationship with God,” says Dorene.

“我和上帝的关系非常好，”多琳说。

She decided to pray about it.

她决定为此祈祷。

She drove to her church, but it was locked; she pounded on the door, but no one answered.

她开车去教堂，但教堂锁着；她敲门，但没有人回应。

Seeing how late it was in England, Bruce simply sent his son’s base an e-mail relaying Tyler’s strange message.

看到英国已经很晚了，布鲁斯只是给儿子的基地发了一封电子邮件，转达了泰勒的奇怪信息。

At 4:30 the next morning they received a phone call from their son’s commanding officer.

第二天早上 4 点 30 分，他们接到了儿子指挥官的电话。

The polite lieutenant colonel apologized for waking them but wanted to let them know before they heard it elsewhere that the plane they were now showing on CNN was indeed Tyler’s.

这位礼貌的中校为吵醒他们而道歉，但想让他们在其他地方听到之前就知道他们现在在 CNN 上展示的飞机确实是泰勒的。

“He says they have determined that Tyler is on the ground somewhere and O.K.,” says Dorene.

“他说他们已经确定泰勒在地面上的某个地方，一切正常，”多琳说。

“And I thought, Your definition of O.K.

“我想，你对“OK”的定义

and mine are clearly going to be different.

我的显然会有所不同。

They send people home without limbs.”

他们把没有四肢的人送回家。”

The Starks turned on their television and found CNN, where, sure enough, they were airing footage of a completely destroyed airplane, somewhere in the desert of Libya.

斯塔克夫妇打开电视，找到了 CNN，果然，他们正在播放利比亚沙漠某处一架完全被毁坏的飞机的镜头。

Until that moment they didn’t know that the United States might have invaded Libya.

直到那一刻他们才知道美国可能已经入侵利比亚。

They did not care for Barack Obama and would never vote for him, but they didn’t question whatever the president had just done, and they didn’t pay much attention to the various criticisms of this new war being made by various TV commentators.

他们不关心巴拉克·奥巴马，也永远不会投票给他，但他们不会质疑总统刚刚所做的一切，也不太关注各种电视评论员对这场新战争的各种批评。

But the sight of their son’s plane’s smoldering wreckage was deeply disturbing.

但看到儿子飞机冒烟的残骸令人深感不安。

“That was just a sick feeling at that point,” recalls Bruce.

“那一刻感觉很恶心，”布鲁斯回忆道。

Dorene found it strangely familiar.

多琳觉得这一切有一种奇怪的熟悉感。

She turned to her husband and asked, “Doesn’t this remind you of Columbine?” Tyler had been a freshman at Columbine High the year of the shootings.

她转向她的丈夫问道：“这难道没有让你想起哥伦拜恩吗？”枪击事件发生那一年，泰勒还是哥伦拜恩高中的新生。

That afternoon, before anyone knew anything, his parents had watched the news and seen that some of the kids who happened to be in the school library at the time had been killed.

那天下午，不知不觉间，他的父母就看到了新闻，发现当时恰好在学校图书馆的一些孩子被杀了。

The shooting had happened during study hall, exactly when Tyler was meant to be in the library.

枪击事件发生在自习室，正是泰勒本该在图书馆的时间。

Now as she watched the CNN report of her son’s plane crash she realized she was in the same state of mind she had been in when she’d been watching news reports of the Columbine massacre.

现在，当她看到美国有线电视新闻网 (CNN) 对儿子飞机失事的报道时，她意识到自己的心态与观看哥伦拜恩大屠杀新闻报道时的心态相同。

“Your body is almost numb,” she says.

“你的身体几乎麻木了，”她说。

“Just to protect you from whatever news might happen.”

“只是为了保护你免受可能发生的任何消息的影响。”

W e were on Air Force One, somewhere between North America and South America, when a hand shook my shoulder, and I gazed up to find Obama staring down at me.

我们在空军一号上，位于北美和南美之间的某个地方，这时一只手摇了摇我的肩膀，我抬头一看，发现奥巴马正在低头看着我。

I’d been seated in the cabin in the middle of the plane—the place where the seats and tables can be easily removed so that if the president’s body needs to be transported after his death there’s a place to put his coffin.

我坐在飞机中间的机舱里，那里的座椅和桌子可以很容易地拆除，这样如果总统去世后需要运送遗体，就有地方可以安放他的棺材。

Apparently, I’d fallen asleep.

显然，我睡着了。

The president’s lips were pursed, impatiently.

总统抿着嘴唇，一脸不耐烦。

There are no wide-open spaces in presidential life, only nooks and crannies, and the front of Air Force One is one of them.

总统生活中没有开阔的空间，只有角落和缝隙，空军一号的前部就是其中之一。

When he’s on his plane, small gaps of time sometimes open in his schedule, and there are fewer people around to leap in and consume them.

当他在飞机上时，他的日程安排中有时会出现一些小间隙，而周围可以参与其中的人也越来越少。

In this case, Obama had just found himself with 30 free minutes.

在这种情况下，奥巴马刚刚发现自己有 30 分钟的空闲时间。

“What you got for me?” he asked and plopped down in the chair beside his desk.

“你给我带来了什么？” “怎么了？”他问道，然后一屁股坐在办公桌旁边的椅子上。

His desk is designed to tilt down when the plane is on the ground so that it might be perfectly flat when the plane is nose up, in flight.

他的办公桌被设计为当飞机在地面上时向下倾斜，这样当飞机在飞行中机头向上时它可能会完全平坦。

It was now perfectly flat.

现在它已经完全平坦了。

“I want to play that game again,” I said.

“我想再玩一次这个游戏，”我说。

“Assume that in 30 minutes you will stop being president.

“假设 30 分钟后你将不再担任总统。

I will take your place.

我会代替你的位置。

Prepare me.

让我做好准备。

Teach me how to be president.”

教我如何当总统。”

This was the third time I’d put the question to him, in one form or another.

这是我第三次以这样或那样的形式向他提出这个问题。

The first time, a month earlier in this same cabin, he’d had a lot of trouble getting his mind around the idea that I, not he, was president.

第一次，一个月前，在同一个小屋里，他费了很大劲才明白总统是我，而不是他。

He’d started by saying something he knew to be dull and expected but that—he insisted—was nevertheless perfectly true.

他一开始就说了一些他知道是乏味且令人期待的事情，但他坚持认为这仍然是完全正确的。

“Here is what I would tell you,” he’d said.

“这就是我要告诉你的，”他说。

“I would say that your first and principal task is to think about the hopes and dreams the American people invested in you.

“我想说，你的首要任务是思考美国人民对你的希望和梦想。

Everything you are doing has to be viewed through this prism.

你所做的一切都必须通过这个棱镜来看待。

And I tell you what every president …

我告诉你每一位总统......

I actually think every president understands this responsibility.

我实际上认为每位总统都明白这一责任。

I don’t know George Bush well.

我不太了解乔治·布什。

I know Bill Clinton better.

我更了解比尔·克林顿。

But I think they both approached the job in that spirit.” Then he added that the world thinks he spends a lot more time worrying about political angles than he actually does.

但我认为他们都是本着这种精神对待这份工作的。”然后他补充说，世人认为他花在担心政治角度上的时间比他实际花的时间多得多。

This time he covered a lot more ground and was willing to talk about the mundane details of presidential existence.

这次他涵盖了更多的话题，并愿意谈论总统存在的平凡细节。

“You have to exercise,” he said, for instance.

例如，“你必须锻炼身体”。

“Or at some point you’ll just break down.” You also need to remove from your life the day-to-day problems that absorb most people for meaningful parts of their day.

“或者在某个时刻你会崩溃。”你还需要从生活中消除那些让大多数人在一天中有意义的时间占据的日常问题。

“You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits,” he said.

“你会看到我只穿灰色或蓝色的西装，”他说。

“I’m trying to pare down decisions.

“我正在努力减少决策。

I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing.

我不想决定我吃什么或穿什么。

Because I have too many other decisions to make.” He mentioned research that shows the simple act of making decisions degrades one’s ability to make further decisions.

因为我还有太多其他决定要做。”他提到研究表明，简单的决策行为会降低一个人做出进一步决策的能力。

It’s why shopping is so exhausting.

这就是为什么购物这么累的原因。

“You need to focus your decision-making energy.

“你需要集中你的决策精力。

You need to routinize yourself.

你需要让自己规律化。

You can’t be going through the day distracted by trivia.” The self-discipline he believes is required to do the job well comes at a high price.

你不能因为琐事而分心度过这一天。”他认为，做好工作所需的自律是要付出高昂代价的。

“You can’t wander around,” he said.

“你不能到处闲逛，”他说。

“It’s much harder to be surprised.

“感到惊讶要困难得多。

You don’t have those moments of serendipity.

你没有那些机缘巧合的时刻。

You don’t bump into a friend in a restaurant you haven’t seen in years.

你不会在一家多年未见的餐馆里遇见一位多年未见的朋友。

The loss of anonymity and the loss of surprise is an unnatural state.

失去匿名性和失去惊喜是一种不自然的状态。

You adapt to it, but you don’t get used to it—at least I don’t.”

你适应了，但你不习惯——至少我不习惯。”

T here are several aspects of his job that seem obvious to him but strike me as so deeply weird that I can’t help but bring them up.

他的工作中有几个方面对他来说似乎是显而易见的，但让我觉得非常奇怪，以至于我忍不住提起它们。

For example, he has the oddest relationship to the news of any human being on the planet.

例如，他与地球上任何人的新闻有着最奇怪的关系。

Wherever it starts out, it quickly finds him and forces him to make some decision about it: whether to respond to it, and shape it, or to leave it be.

无论它从哪里开始，它都会很快找到他并迫使他做出一些决定：是回应它，塑造它，还是不去管它。

As the news speeds up, so must our president’s response to it, and then, on top of it all, the news to which he must respond is often about him.

随着新闻的传播速度加快，我们的总统对此的回应也必须加快，最重要的是，他必须回应的新闻往往是关于他的。

On the leather sofa beside me were the five newspapers that are laid out for him every time he travels.

我旁边的皮沙发上放着他每次旅行时为他准备的五份报纸。

“In every one of those someone is saying something nasty about you,” I said to him.

“每一篇都有人在说你的坏话，”我对他说。

“You turn on the television and you could find people being even nastier.

“你打开电视，你会发现人们的态度更加恶劣。

If I’m president, I’m thinking, I’ll just walk around pissed off all the time, looking for someone to punch.”

我想，如果我是总统，我就会一直生气地走来走去，找人来打。”

He shook his head.

他摇摇头。

He doesn’t watch cable news, which he thinks is genuinely toxic.

他不看有线电视新闻，他认为这些新闻确实有毒。

One of his aides told me that once, thinking the president otherwise occupied, he’d made the mistake of switching the Air Force One television from ESPN, which Obama prefers, to a cable news show.

他的一位助手告诉我，有一次，他以为总统有其他事情要做，所以错误地将空军一号的电视节目从奥巴马喜欢的 ESPN 切换到了有线电视新闻节目。

The president walked into the room and watched a talking head explain knowingly to his audience why he, Obama, had taken some action.

总统走进房间，看到一位会说话的人有意向他的听众解释他，奥巴马，为什么要采取一些行动。

“Oh, so that’s why I did it,” said Obama, and walked out.

“哦，这就是我这么做的原因，”奥巴马说完就走了出去。

Now he said, “One of the things you realize fairly quickly in this job is that there is a character people see out there called Barack Obama.

现在他说：“在这份工作中你很快就会意识到，人们看到的一个人物就是巴拉克·奥巴马(Barack Obama)。

That’s not you.

那不是你。

Whether it is good or bad, it is not you.

无论是好还是坏，都不是你的。

I learned that on the campaign.” Then he added, “You have to filter stuff, but you can’t filter it so much you live in this fantasyland.”

我是在竞选活动中了解到这一点的。”然后他补充道，“你必须过滤一些东西，但你不能过滤太多，因为你生活在这个幻想世界里。”

The other aspect of his job I have trouble getting comfortable with is its bizarre emotional demands.

他的工作的另一个让我难以适应的方面是它奇怪的情感需求。

In the span of a few hours, a president will go from celebrating the Super Bowl champions to running meetings on how to fix the financial system, to watching people on TV make up stuff about him, to listening to members of Congress explain why they can’t support a reasonable idea simply because he, the president, is for it, to sitting down with the parents of a young soldier recently killed in action.

在几个小时内，总统将从庆祝超级碗冠军，到召开会议讨论如何修复金融体系，到观看电视上的人们编造关于他的事情，到聆听国会议员解释为什么他们不能仅仅因为他作为总统支持一个合理的想法而无法支持它，到与最近在行动中阵亡的一名年轻士兵的父母坐下来。

He spends his day leaping over ravines between vastly different feelings.

他整天在截然不同的感觉之间跨越峡谷。

How does anyone become used to this?

怎么会有人习惯这个呢？

As I was still a little groggy and put my question poorly, he answered a question it hadn’t occurred to me to ask: Why doesn’t he show more emotion?

由于我还有些昏昏沉沉，问题提得不好，他回答了一个我没有想到的问题：为什么他不表现出更多的情感？

He does this on occasion, even when I’ve put the question clearly—see in what I’ve asked some implicit criticism, usually one he’s heard many times before.

他有时会这样做，即使我已经清楚地提出了问题——看看我提出的一些含蓄的批评，通常是他以前听过很多次的批评。

As he’s not naturally defensive, it’s pretty clearly an acquired trait.

由于他天生不具有防御性，这显然是一种后天的特质。

“There are some things about being president that I still have difficulty doing,” he said.

“作为总统，有些事情我仍然很难做到，”他说。

“For example, faking emotion.

“例如，假装情绪。

Because I feel it is an insult to the people I’m dealing with.

因为我觉得这是对与我打交道的人的侮辱。

For me to feign outrage, for example, feels to me like I’m not taking the American people seriously.

例如，对我来说，假装愤怒会让我感觉自己没有认真对待美国人民。

I’m absolutely positive that I’m serving the American people better if I’m maintaining my authenticity.

我绝对确信，如果我保持真实性，我就能更好地为美国人民服务。

And that’s an overused word.

这是一个被过度使用的词。

And these days people practice being authentic.

如今，人们练习保持真实。

But I’m at my best when I believe what I am saying.”

但当我相信自己所说的话时，我就处于最佳状态。”

That was not what I had been after.

那不是我一直追求的。

What I had wanted to know was: Where do you put what you actually feel, when there is no place in your job to feel it?

我想知道的是：当你的工作中没有地方可以感受到你的真实感受时，你把它放在哪里？

When you are president you are not allowed to go numb to protect yourself from whatever news might happen.

当你是总统时，你不可以麻木地保护自己免受可能发生的任何新闻的影响。

But it was too late; my time was up; I returned to my seat in the cabin.

但为时已晚。我的时间到了；我回到机舱里的座位上。

W hen they give you the tour of Air Force One they show you the extra-large doors in the middle of the plane, to accommodate a president’s coffin—as they did Reagan’s.

当他们带你参观空军一号时，他们会向你展示飞机中间的超大门，用于容纳总统的棺材——就像他们对里根的棺材一样。

They tell you about the boxes of M&M candies embossed with the presidential seal, the medical room prepared for every emergency (there’s even a bag that says, “Cyanide Antidote Kit”), and the conference room refitted with fancy video equipment since 9/11 so that the president doesn’t need to land to address the nation.

他们告诉你，印有总统印章的 M&M 糖果盒、为各种紧急情况做好准备的医疗室（甚至有一个袋子上写着“氰化物解毒剂套件”），以及自 9/11 以来重新配备了精美视频设备的会议室，这样总统就不需要着陆向全国发表讲话。

What they don’t tell you—though everyone who rides on it nods when you point it out—is how little sense it gives you of your relationship to the ground.

他们没有告诉你的是——尽管当你指出这一点时，每个骑在上面的人都会点头——它让你对你与地面的关系毫无了解。

There are no announcements from the pilot and no seat-belt signs; people are up and walking around during takeoff and landing.

飞行员没有任何广播，也没有系安全带的标志；在起飞和降落期间，人们会起身走动。

But that’s not all.

但这还不是全部。

The president’s plane simply does not give you, the moment before you land, the same feeling of an impending collision that you get in other airplanes.

总统的专机根本不会在着陆前一刻给你带来与其他飞机相同的即将发生碰撞的感觉。

One moment you are up in the air.

有一瞬间你还悬在空中。

The next— bam!

接下来——嘭！

T yler Stark hit the desert floor in what he believed was a perfect position.

泰勒·史塔克以他认为完美的姿势跌倒在沙漠地面上。

“I thought I did a pretty good job, but halfway through I hear this ‘pop’ and I fall on my butt.” He’d torn tendons in both his left knee and his left ankle.

“我以为我做得很好，但走到一半时我听到‘砰’的一声，然后我就摔倒了。”他的左膝和左脚踝的肌腱都撕裂了。

He looked around for shelter.

他环顾四周寻找庇护所。

There was nothing but a few chest-high thornbushes and some small rocks.

除了一些齐胸高的荆棘丛和一些小石头之外，什么也没有。

He was in the middle of a desert; there was no place to hide.

他身处沙漠之中；无处可藏。

I need to get away from this area, he thought.

我需要离开这个区域，他想。

He collected the gear he wanted, stuffed the rest in a thornbush, and began to move.

他收集了他想要的装备，将剩下的塞进荆棘丛中，然后开始移动。

“The moment of serenity had gone away,” he recalled.

“平静的时刻已经过去了，”他回忆道。

It was his first combat mission, but he’d felt the way he now felt once before: during Columbine.

这是他的第一次战斗任务，但他以前也有过这样的感觉：在哥伦拜恩期间。

He’d been shot at once in the cafeteria by one of the killers, and then many times by the other one as he had raced down the hall.

他在自助餐厅里被一名杀手开枪射击，然后当他跑过大厅时，又被另一名杀手开枪多次。

He’d heard the bullets zipping past his head and exploding into the metal lockers.

他听到子弹从他的头上呼啸而过，炸进金属储物柜。

“It’s the feeling not real­ly of terror,” he said, “but of not knowing what is going on.

“这种感觉并不是真正的恐惧，”他说，“而是不知道发生了什么。

You just go with your gut decision to get to safety.” The difference between this and that was that he’d trained for this.

你只需凭直觉做出决定即可到达安全地带。”这个和那个之间的区别在于他为此接受过训练。

“For Columbine I didn’t have any training, so I was just going.”

“对于哥伦拜恩，我没有接受任何训练，所以我就去了。”

He wandered the desert until he realized there was no place to go.

他在沙漠中徘徊，直到意识到无处可去。

In the end he found a thornbush a little bigger than the others and got himself inside it as best he could.

最后，他找到了一棵比其他的荆棘丛大一点的荆棘丛，并尽可能地钻了进去。

There he called nato command, to let them know where he was.

在那里，他给北约指挥部打电话，让他们知道他在哪里。

He established contact, but it wasn’t easy—in part because of the dog.

他建立了联系，但这并不容易——部分原因是狗。

What appeared to be a border collie had found him, and every time he moved to pick up his communications gear the dog moved in on him and started barking.

似乎是一只边境牧羊犬找到了他，每次他拿起通讯设备时，狗就会靠近他并开始吠叫。

He reached for and armed his 9-mm.

他伸手拿起他的 9 毫米手枪。

pistol, but then thought, What am I going to do?

手枪，但转念一想，我该怎么办？

Shoot a dog?

射杀一只狗？

He liked dogs.

他喜欢狗。

He’d been on the loose for two hours when he heard voices.

当他听到声音时，他已经逃亡了两个小时。

“They were coming from the direction where the parachute was.

“他们是从降落伞所在的方向过来的。

I didn’t speak Arabic, so I couldn’t tell what they were saying, but to me it kind of sounded like ‘Hey, we found a parachute.’” Out of nowhere a spotlight appeared, on top of some sort of vehicle.

我不会说阿拉伯语，所以我听不清他们在说什么，但对我来说，这听起来有点像‘嘿，我们发现了一个降落伞。’”不知从什么地方出现了一个聚光灯，出现在某种车辆的顶部。

The light passed right over the thornbush.

光线正好穿过荆棘丛。

Tyler was now flat on the ground.

泰勒现在平躺在地上。

“I’m trying to think as thin as possible,” he said.

“我正在尝试尽可能精简地思考，”他说。

But he could see that the light had stopped moving back and forth and had settled on him.

但他可以看到光线不再来回移动，而是落在了他身上。

“I initially wouldn’t acknowledge or accept it,” he said.

“我最初不会承认或接受它，”他说。

Then someone screamed, “American, come out!” “And I think, Nope.

然后有人尖叫：“美国人，出来！” “我想，不。

Not quite that easy.” Another shout: “American, come out!” At length, Tyler rose and started walking toward the light.

没那么容易。”又一声喊：“美国人，出来吧！”最后，泰勒站了起来，开始朝灯光走去。

T he gist of Obama’s advice to any would-be president is something like this: You may think that the presidency is essentially a public-relations job.

奥巴马对任何未来总统的建议的要点是这样的：你可能认为总统职位本质上是一项公共关系工作。

Relations with the public are indeed important, maybe now more than ever, as public opinion is the only tool he has for pressuring an intractable opposition to agree on anything.

与公众的关系确实很重要，也许现在比以往任何时候都更重要，因为公众舆论是他向顽固的反对派施压以就任何事情达成一致的唯一工具。

He admits that he has been guilty, at times, of misreading the public.

他承认，他有时会误读公众。

He badly underestimated, for instance, how little it would cost Republicans politically to oppose ideas they had once advocated, merely because Obama supported them.

例如，他严重低估了共和党人仅仅因为奥巴马支持他们曾经倡导的想法而在政治上花费很少的代价。

He thought the other side would pay a bigger price for inflicting damage on the country for the sake of defeating a president.

他认为对方为了打败总统，会付出更大的代价，给国家造成损害。

But the idea that he might somehow frighten Congress into doing what he wanted was, to him, clearly absurd.

但他可能会以某种方式恐吓国会做他想做的事情，对他来说，这种想法显然是荒谬的。

“All of these forces have created an environment in which the incentives for politicians to cooperate don’t function the way they used to,” he said.

“所有这些力量都创造了一种环境，在这种环境中，政治家合作的动力不再像以前那样发挥作用，”他说。

“L.B.J.

“L.B.J.

operated in an environment in which if he got a couple of committee chairmen to agree he had a deal.

在这样的环境下运作，如果他让几位委员会主席同意，他就能达成协议。

Those chairmen didn’t have to worry about a Tea Party challenge.

这些主席不必担心茶党的挑战。

About cable news.

关于有线电视新闻。

That model has progressively shifted for each president.

对于每一位总统来说，这种模式都在逐渐转变。

It’s not a fear-versus-a-nice-guy approach that is the choice.

这并不是一种“恐惧与好人对抗”的选择。

The question is: How do you shape public opinion and frame an issue so that it’s hard for the opposition to say no. And these days you don’t do that by saying, ‘I’m going to withhold an earmark,’ or ‘I’m not going to appoint your brother-in-law to the federal bench.’”

问题是：如何塑造公众舆论并提出问题，以便反对派很难拒绝。如今，你不会通过说‘我将保留一笔专项拨款’或‘我不会任命你的姐夫担任联邦法官’来做到这一点。”

But if you happen to be president just now, what you are faced with, mainly, is not a public-relations problem but an endless string of decisions.

但如果你刚刚当上总统，你面临的主要不是公共关系问题，而是一连串没完没了的决策。

Putting it the way George W.

以乔治·W·布什 (George W.

Bush did sounded silly but he was right: the president is a decider.

布什确实听起来很愚蠢，但他是对的：总统是决策者。

Many if not most of his decisions are thrust upon the president, out of the blue, by events beyond his control: oil spills, financial panics, pandemics, earthquakes, fires, coups, invasions, underwear bombers, movie-theater shooters, and on and on and on.

他的许多（如果不是大部分）决定都是由他无法控制的事件突然强加给总统的：石油泄漏、金融恐慌、流行病、地震、火灾、政变、入侵、内衣炸弹袭击者、电影院枪击事件等等。

They don’t order themselves neatly for his consideration but come in waves, jumbled on top of each other.

它们并不是为了他的考虑而整齐地排列起来，而是成群结队地出现，彼此混杂在一起。

“Nothing comes to my desk that is perfectly solvable,” Obama said at one point.

“我的办公桌上没有任何事情是完全可以解决的，”奥巴马有一次说道。

“Otherwise, someone else would have solved it.

“不然的话，别人早就解决了。

So you wind up dealing with probabilities.

所以你最终要处理的是概率。

Any given decision you make you’ll wind up with a 30 to 40 percent chance that it isn’t going to work.

你做出的任何决定最终都有 30% 到 40% 的可能性行不通。

You have to own that and feel comfortable with the way you made the decision.

你必须承认这一点，并对你做出决定的方式感到满意。

You can’t be paralyzed by the fact that it might not work out.” On top of all of this, after you have made your decision, you need to feign total certainty about it.

你不能因为事情可能行不通而陷入瘫痪。”最重要的是，在你做出决定之后，你需要假装对此完全确定。

People being led do not want to think probabilistically.

被领导的人不想进行概率性思考。

T he second week in March of last year offered a nice illustration of a president’s curious predicament.

去年三月的第二周很好地说明了一位总统的奇怪困境。

On March 11 a tsunami rolled over the Japanese village of Fukushima, triggering the meltdown of reactors inside a nuclear power plant in the town—and raising the alarming possibility that a cloud of radiation would waft over the United States.

3 月 11 日，一场海啸席卷了日本福岛村，引发了该镇一座核电站内反应堆的熔毁，并引发了辐射云飘过美国上空的惊人可能性。

If you happened to be president of the United States, you were woken up and given the news.

如果你碰巧是美国总统，你就会被叫醒并得知这个消息。

(In fact, the president seldom is awakened with news of some crisis, but his aides routinely are, to determine if the president’s sleep needs to be disrupted for whatever has just happened.

（事实上，总统很少被某些危机的消息吵醒，但他的助手们经常会被吵醒，以确定总统的睡眠是否需要因为刚刚发生的事情而被打扰。

As one nighttime crisis vetter put it, “They’ll say, ‘This just happened in Afghanistan,’ and I’m like, ‘O.K., and what am I supposed to do about it?’”) In the case of Fukushima, if you were able to go back to sleep you did so knowing that radiation clouds were not your most difficult problem.

正如一位夜间危机审查员所说，“他们会说，‘这件事刚刚发生在阿富汗’，我的反应是，‘好吧，我该怎么办？’”）就福岛核事故而言，如果你能够重新入睡，你就会知道辐射云并不是最困难的问题。

Not even close.

甚至还差得远。

At that very moment, you were deciding on whether to approve a ridiculously audacious plan to assassinate Osama bin Laden in his house in Pakistan.

就在那一刻，你正在决定是否批准一项在奥萨马·本·拉登位于巴基斯坦的家中刺杀他的大胆得可笑的计划。

You were arguing, as ever, with Republican leaders in Congress about the budget.

您一如既往地与国会共和党领导人就预算问题进行争论。

And you were receiving daily briefings on various revolutions in various Arab countries.

你们每天都会收到有关各个阿拉伯国家各种革命的简报。

In early February, following the lead of the Egyptians and the Tunisians, the Libyan people had revolted against their dictator, who was now bent on crushing them.

二月初，在埃及人和突尼斯人的带领下，利比亚人民反抗独裁者，而独裁者现在正一心要镇压他们。

Muammar Qaddafi and his army of 27,000 men were marching across the Libyan desert toward a city called Ben­gha­zi and were promising to exterminate some large number of the 1.2 million people inside.

穆阿迈尔·卡扎菲 (Muammar Qaddafi) 和他的 27,000 人军队正穿越利比亚沙漠，向一座名为班加西 (Benghazi) 的城市行进，并承诺要消灭城内 120 万人中的一部分。

If you were president just then and you turned your television to some cable news channel you would have seen many Republican senators screaming at you to invade Libya and many Democratic congressmen hollering at you that you had no business putting American lives at risk in Libya.

如果你当时还是总统，把电视调到某个有线新闻频道，你会看到许多共和党参议员向你尖叫，要求你入侵利比亚，也会看到许多民主党国会议员向你咆哮，说你无权让美国人在利比亚面临生命危险。

If you flipped over to the networks on March 7 you might have caught ABC White House correspondent Jake Tapper saying to your press secretary, Jay Carney, “More than a thousand people have died, according to the United Nations.

如果你在 3 月 7 日翻看电视网，你可能会看到美国广播公司 (ABC) 白宫记者杰克·塔珀 (Jake Tapper) 对你的新闻秘书杰伊·卡尼 (Jay Carney) 说：“据联合国称，已有一千多人死亡。

How many more people have to die before the United States decides, O.K., we’re going to take this one step of a no-fly zone?”

还要死多少人才能让美国决定，好吧，我们要迈出禁飞区的一步？”

By March 13, Qaddafi appeared to be roughly two weeks from getting to Ben­gha­zi.

到 3 月 13 日，卡扎菲似乎还有大约两周时间才抵达班加西。

On that day the French announced they were planning to introduce a resolution in the United Nations to use U.N.

当天，法国宣布他们计划在联合国提出一项决议，使用联合国决议。

forces to secure the skies over Libya in order to prevent Libyan planes from flying.

部队保卫利比亚上空，防止利比亚飞机飞行。

A “no-fly zone” this was called, and it forced Obama’s hand.

这被称为“禁飞区”，它迫使奥巴马采取行动。

The president had to decide whether to support the no-fly-zone resolution or not.

总统必须决定是否支持禁飞区决议。

At 4:10 p.m.

下午 4 点 10 分

on March 15 the White House held a meeting to discuss the issue.

3月15日，白宫召开会议讨论这一问题。

“Here is what we knew,” recalls Obama, by which he means here is what I knew.

“这就是我们所知道的，”奥巴马回忆道，他的意思是这就是我所知道的。

“We knew that Qaddafi was moving on Benghazi, and that his history was such that he could carry out a threat to kill tens of thousands of people.

“我们知道卡扎菲正在向班加西进军，而且他的历史表明他可以威胁杀死数万人。

We knew we didn’t have a lot of time—somewhere between two days and two weeks.

我们知道我们的时间不多——两天到两周之间。

We knew they were moving faster than we originally anticipated.

我们知道他们的行动速度比我们最初预期的要快。

We knew that Europe was proposing a no-fly zone.”

我们知道欧洲正在提议设立禁飞区。”

That much had been in the news.

新闻里就说了这么多。

One crucial piece of information had not.

一项重要信息没有。

“We knew that a no-fly zone would not save the people of Ben­gha­zi,” says Obama.

“我们知道禁飞区无法拯救班加西人民，”奥巴马说。

“The no-fly zone was an expression of concern that didn’t real­ly do anything.” European leaders wanted to create a no-fly zone to stop Qaddafi, but Qaddafi wasn’t flying.

“禁飞区只是一种表达担忧的方式，但并没有真正起到任何作用。”欧洲领导人希望建立禁飞区来阻止卡扎菲，但卡扎菲并没有飞。

His army was racing across the North African desert in jeeps and tanks.

他的军队正开着吉普车和坦克穿越北非沙漠。

Obama had to have wondered just how aware of this were these foreign leaders supposedly interested in the fate of these Libyan civilians.

奥巴马一定想知道，这些据称对这些利比亚平民的命运感兴趣的外国领导人到底有多了解这一点。

He didn’t know if they knew that a no-fly zone was pointless, but if they’d talked to any military leader for five minutes they would have.

他不知道他们是否知道禁飞区毫无意义，但如果他们与任何军事领导人交谈五分钟，他们就会知道。

And that was not all.

这还不是全部。

“The last thing we knew,” he adds, “is that if you announced a no-fly zone and if it appeared feckless, there would be additional pressure for us to go further.

“我们知道的最后一件事是，”他补充道，“如果你宣布设立禁飞区，而它看起来不负责任，我们就会面临进一步采取行动的额外压力。

As enthusiastic as France and Britain were about the no-fly zone, there was a danger that if we participated the U.S. would own the operation.

尽管法国和英国对禁飞区充满热情，但如果我们参与的话，美国就会面临这项行动的所有权。

Because we had the capacity.”

因为我们有这个能力。”

O n March 15 the president had a typically full schedule.

3 月 15 日，总统的日程安排得很满。

Already he’d met with his national-security advisers, given a series of TV interviews on the No Child Left Behind law, lunched with his vice president, celebrated the winners of an Intel high-school science competition, and spent a good chunk of time alone in the Oval Office with a child suffering from an incurable disease, whose final wish had been to meet the president.

他已经会见了他的国家安全顾问，接受了一系列有关“不让一个孩子掉队”法律的电视采访，与副总统共进午餐，庆祝英特尔高中科学竞赛的获胜者，并在椭圆形办公室里独自度过了大部分时间，陪伴一个患有不治之症的孩子，他的最终愿望是会见总统。

His last event, before convening a meeting with 18 advisers (which his official schedule listed simply as “The President and the Vice-President Meet With Secretary of Defense Gates”), was to sit down with ESPN.

他的最后一项活动是在与 18 名顾问召开会议（他的官方日程安排中简单地写为“总统和副总统与国防部长盖茨会面”）之前，与 ESPN 进行会面。

Twenty-five minutes after he’d given the world his March Madness tournament picks Obama walked down to the Situation Room.

在向全世界公布他的疯狂三月锦标赛选秀权二十五分钟后，奥巴马走进了战情室。

He’d been there just the day before, to hold his first meeting to discuss how to kill Osama bin Laden.

前一天他刚刚到那里，召开他的第一次会议，讨论如何杀死奥萨马·本·拉登。

In White House jargon this was a meeting of “the principals,” which is to say the big shots.

用白宫的行话来说，这是一次“校长”会议，也就是大人物的会议。

In addition to Biden and Gates, it included Secretary of State Hil­lary Clinton (on the phone from Cairo), chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, White House chief of staff William Daley, head of the National Security Council Tom Doni­lon (who had organized the meeting), and U.N.

除了拜登和盖茨之外，参加会议的还包括国务卿希拉里·克林顿（在开罗接电话）、参谋长联席会议主席迈克·马伦海军上将、白宫幕僚长威廉·戴利、国家安全委员会主席汤姆·多尼隆（会议组织者）以及联合国秘书长潘基文。

ambassador Susan Rice (on a video screen from New York).

大使苏珊·赖斯（来自纽约的视频屏幕）。

The senior people, at least those in the Situation Room, sat around the table.

高层人士，至少是战情室里的高层人士，围坐在桌子周围。

Their subordinates sat around the perimeter of the room.

他们的下属坐在房间的周围。

“Obama structures meetings so that they’re not debates,” says one participant.

“奥巴马安排的会议不会是辩论，”一位与会者表示。

“They’re mini-speeches.

“它们是小型演讲。

He likes to make decisions by having his mind occupying the various positions.

他喜欢通过思考不同的位置来做出决定。

He likes to imagine holding the view.” Says another person at the meeting, “He seems very much to want to hear from people.

他喜欢想象持有观点。”另一位与会者表示，“他似乎非常想听取人们的意见。

Even when he’s made up his mind he wants to cherry-pick the best arguments to justify what he wants to do.”

即使他已经下定决心，他也想挑选最好的论据来证明他想做的事情是合理的。”

Before big meetings the president is given a kind of road map, a list of who will be at the meeting and what they might be called on to contribute.

在大型会议之前，总统会得到一份路线图，一份列明出席会议的人员名单以及他们可能会被要求做出哪些贡献的名单。

The point of this particular meeting was for the people who knew something about Libya to describe what they thought Qad­da­fi might do, and then for the Pentagon to give the president his military options.

这次特别会议的目的是让那些了解利比亚情况的人描述他们认为卡扎菲可能会做什么，然后让五角大楼向总统提供他的军事选择。

“The intelligence was very abstract,” says one witness.

“情报非常抽象，”一位目击者说。

“Obama started asking questions about it.

“奥巴马开始就此提出问题。

‘What happens to the people in these cities when the cities fall?

“当城市陷落时，这些城市的人们会怎样？

When you say Qaddafi takes a town, what happens?’” It didn’t take long to get the picture: if they did nothing they’d be looking at a horrific scenario, with tens and possibly hundreds of thousands of people slaughtered.

当你说卡扎菲占领了一座城镇时，会发生什么？’”没过多久就得到了这样的画面：如果他们不采取任何行动，他们就会看到一个可怕的场景，数以万计甚至数十万人被屠杀。

(Qaddafi himself had given a speech on February 22, saying he planned to “cleanse Libya, house by house.”) The Pentagon then presented the president with two options: establish a no-fly zone or do nothing at all.

（卡扎菲本人曾于 2 月 22 日发表讲话，称他计划“逐户清理利比亚。”）五角大楼随后向总统提出了两个选择：建立禁飞区或什么也不做。

The idea was that the people in the meeting would debate the merits of each, but Obama surprised the room by rejecting the premise of the meeting.

会议的想法是，与会者将辩论每个人的优点，但奥巴马拒绝了会议的前提，这让与会者感到惊讶。

“He instantly went off the road map,” recalls one eyewitness.

“他立刻就脱离了路线图，”一位目击者回忆道。

“He asked, ‘Would a no-fly zone do anything to stop the scenario we just heard?’” After it became clear that it would not, Obama said, “I want to hear from some of the other folks in the room.”

“他问，‘设立禁飞区能阻止我们刚刚听到的情况吗？’”在事实证明不会发生这种情况后，奥巴马说道，“我想听听房间里其他一些人的意见。”

Obama then proceeded to call on every single person for his views, including the most junior people.

奥巴马随后向每个人征求意见，包括最底层的人。

“What was a little unusual,” Obama admits, “is that I went to people who were not at the table.

“有点不寻常的是，”奥巴马承认，“我去找了那些不在谈判桌上的人。

Because I am trying to get an argument that is not being made.” The argument he had wanted to hear was the case for a more nuanced intervention—and a detailing of the more subtle costs to American interests of allowing the mass slaughter of Libyan civilians.

因为我试图找到一个尚未提出的论点。”他想听到的论点是进行更细致的干预，并详细说明允许大规模屠杀利比亚平民给美国利益带来的更微妙的代价。

His desire to hear the case raises the obvious question: Why didn’t he just make it himself?

他对审理此案的渴望提出了一个明显的问题：为什么他不自己来解决呢？

“It’s the Heisenberg principle,” he says.

“这是海森堡原理，”他说。

“Me asking the question changes the answer.

“我提出的问题改变了答案。

And it also protects my decision-­making.” But it’s more than that.

这也保护了我的决策。”但还不止于此。

His desire to hear out junior people is a warm personality trait as much as a cool tactic, of a piece with his desire to play golf with White House cooks rather than with C.E.O.’s and basketball with people who treat him as just another player on the court; to stay home and read a book rather than go to a Washington cocktail party; and to seek out, in any crowd, not the beautiful people but the old people.

他渴望倾听后辈的意见，这是一种温暖的个性特征，也是一种很酷的策略，这与他渴望与白宫厨师而不是首席执行官一起打高尔夫球以及与那些把他视为球场上的另一名球员的人打篮球的愿望是一致的；呆在家里看书而不是去华盛顿的鸡尾酒会；在人群中寻找的不是美丽的人，而是老人。

The man has his stat­us needs, but they are unusual.

这个男人有他的地位需求，但它们是不寻常的。

And he has a tendency, an unthinking first step, to subvert established stat­us structures.

他有一种倾向，不假思索地第一步，颠覆既定的地位结构。

After all, he became president.

毕竟，他当上了总统。

Asked if he was surprised that the Pentagon had not presented him with the option to prevent Qaddafi from destroying a city twice the size of New Orleans and killing everyone inside the place, Obama says simply, “No.” Asked why he was not surprised—if I were president I would have been—he adds, “Because it’s a hard problem.

当被问及五角大楼没有向他提供阻止卡扎菲摧毁一座两倍于新奥尔良的城市并杀死该地区所有人的选项时，奥巴马简单地说：“不。”当被问及为什么他不感到惊讶时——如果我是总统我会感到惊讶——他补充道，“因为这是一个难题。

What the process is going to do is try to lead you to a binary decision.

这个过程要做的就是试图引导你做出二元决定。

Here are the pros and cons of going in.

以下是进入的优点和缺点。

Here are the pros and cons of not going in.

以下是不进去的优点和缺点。

The process pushes towards black or white answers; it’s less good with shades of gray.

这个过程会推向非黑即白的答案；灰色阴影效果不太好。

Partly because the instinct among the participants was that …

部分原因是参与者的本能是……

” Here he pauses and decides he doesn’t want to criticize anyone personally.

”说到这里，他停了下来，决定不想对任何人进行个人批评。

“We were engaged in Afghanistan.

“我们参与了阿富汗战争。

We still had equity in Iraq.

我们在伊拉克仍然拥有权益。

Our assets are strained.

我们的资产紧张。

The participants are asking a question: Is there a core national-security issue at stake?

与会者提出一个问题：是否存在核心国家安全问题？

As opposed to calibrating our national-­security interests in some new way.”

而不是以某种新的方式调整我们的国家安全利益。”

The people who operate the machinery have their own ideas of what the president should decide, and their advice is pitched accordingly.

操作该机器的人对总统应该做出什么决定有自己的想法，他们的建议也会相应地提出。

Gates and Mullen didn’t see how core American security interests were at stake; Biden and Daley thought that getting involved in Libya was, politically, nothing but downside.

盖茨和马伦没有看到美国的核心安全利益受到多大的威胁。拜登和戴利认为，介入利比亚在政治上只会带来负面影响。

“The funny thing is the system worked,” says one person who witnessed the meeting.

“有趣的是，这个系统发挥了作用，”一位目睹会议的人士说道。

“Everyone was doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing.

“每个人都在做他应该做的事情。

Gates was right to insist that we had no core national-security issue.

盖茨坚持认为我们不存在核心国家安全问题，这是正确的。

Biden was right to say it was politically stupid.

拜登说这在政治上是愚蠢的，这是正确的。

He’d be putting his presidency on the line.”

他会把自己的总统职位置于危险之中。”

P ublic opinion at the fringes of the room, as it turned out, was different.

事实证明，房间边缘的公众意见是不同的。

Several people sitting there had been deeply affected by the genocide in Rwanda.

坐在那里的几个人都深受卢旺达种族灭绝事件的影响。

(“The ghosts of 800,000 Tutsis were in that room,” as one puts it.) Several of these people had been with Obama since before he was president—people who, had it not been for him, would have been unlikely ever to have found themselves in such a meeting.

（正如有人所说，“那个房间里有 80 万图西族的鬼魂”。）其中有几个人在奥巴马担任总统之前就一直在他身边——如果不是他，这些人根本不可能参加这样的会议。

They aren’t political people so much as Obama people.

与其说他们是奥巴马人，不如说他们是政治人物。

One was Samantha Power, who won a Pulitzer Prize for her book A Problem from Hell, about the moral and political costs the U.S. has paid for largely ignoring modern genocides.

其中一位是萨曼莎·鲍尔（Samantha Power），她因《来自地狱的问题》一书获得普利策奖，该书讲述了美国因很大程度上忽视现代种族灭绝而付出的道德和政治代价。

Another was Ben Rhodes, who had been a struggling novelist when he went to work as a speechwriter back in 2007 on the first Obama campaign.

另一位是本·罗兹 (Ben Rhodes)，他在 2007 年第一次奥巴马竞选期间担任演讲撰稿人时，一直是一名苦苦挣扎的小说家。

Whatever Obama decided, Rhodes would have to write the speech explaining the decision, and he said in the meeting that he preferred to explain why the United States had prevented a massacre over why it hadn’t.

无论奥巴马做出什么决定，罗德斯都必须撰写演讲来解释这一决定，他在会议上表示，他更愿意解释为什么美国阻止了一场大屠杀，而不是为什么没有阻止。

An N.S.C.

国家安全委员会

staffer named Denis McDonough came out for intervention, as did Antony Blinken, who had been on Bill Clinton’s National Security Council during the Rwandan genocide, but now, awkwardly, worked for Joe Biden.

一位名叫丹尼斯·麦克唐纳的工作人员出来干预，还有安东尼·布林肯，他在卢旺达种族灭绝期间曾在比尔·克林顿的国家安全委员会任职，但现在尴尬地为乔·拜登工作。

“I have to disagree with my boss on this one,” said Blinken.

“在这一点上我不得不与我的老板意见不同，”布林肯说。

As a group, the junior staff made the case for saving the Ben­gha­zis.

作为一个团队，初级工作人员提出了拯救班加西人的理由。

But how?

但如何呢？

The president may not have been surprised that the Pentagon hadn’t sought to answer that question.

对于五角大楼没有寻求回答这个问题，总统可能并不感到惊讶。

He was nevertheless visibly annoyed.

但他显然还是很恼火。

“I don’t know why we are even having this meeting,” he said, or words to that effect.

“我不知道我们为什么要召开这次会议，”他说，或者类似的话。

“You’re telling me a no-fly zone doesn’t solve the problem, but the only option you’re giving me is a no-fly zone.” He gave his generals two hours to come up with another solution for him to consider, then left to attend the next event on his schedule, a ceremonial White House dinner.

“你告诉我禁飞区并不能解决问题，但你给我的唯一选择就是禁飞区。”他给了他的将军们两个小时的时间来提出另一个解决方案供他考虑，然后离开去参加他日程上的下一个活动，即白宫的礼仪晚宴。

B ack on October 9, 2009, Obama had been woken up in the middle of the night to be informed that he’d been given the Nobel Peace Prize.

时间回到2009年10月9日，奥巴马半夜被叫醒，得知自己获得了诺贝尔和平奖。

He half thought it might be a prank.

他一半认为这可能是一个恶作剧。

“It’s one of the most shocking things that has happened in all of this,” he says.

“这是所有这一切中发生的最令人震惊的事情之一，”他说。

“And I immediately anticipated that it would cause me problems.” The Nobel Prize Committee had just made it a tiny bit harder for him to do the job he’d just been elected to do, as he could not at once be commander in chief of the most powerful force on earth and the face of pacifism.

“我立刻就预料到这会给我带来麻烦。”诺贝尔奖委员会刚刚让他完成刚刚当选的工作变得更加困难，因为他无法立即成为地球上最强大力量的总司令和和平主义的代言人。

When he sat down some weeks later with Ben Rhodes and another speechwriter, Jon Favreau, to discuss what he wanted to say, he told them he intended to use the acceptance speech to make the case for war.

几周后，当他与本·罗德斯和另一位演讲撰稿人乔恩·费儒坐下来讨论他想说的话时，他告诉他们，他打算利用获奖感言来为战争辩护。

“I need to make sure I was addressing a European audience that had recoiled so badly from the Iraq war, and that may have been viewing the conferring of the Nobel Prize as a vindication of inaction.”

“我需要确保我向欧洲观众发表讲话，他们对伊拉克战争非常反感，他们可能将诺贝尔奖的授予视为不作为的证明。”

Both Rhodes and Favreau, who have been with Obama since early in his first presidential campaign, are widely viewed as his two most adept mimics when it comes to speeches.

罗德斯和费儒从奥巴马第一次总统竞选初期就一直跟随他，在演讲方面被广泛认为是他最擅长模仿的两个人。

They know how the president sounds: his desire to make it seem he is telling a story rather than making an argument; the long sentences strung together by semicolons; the tendency to speak in paragraphs rather than sound bites; the absence of emotion he was unlikely to genuinely feel.

他们知道总统的声音是怎样的：他想让别人觉得他是在讲故事而不是在争论；他想让别人觉得他是在讲故事，而不是在争论；用分号串在一起的长句子；倾向于以段落而不是原声摘要的方式讲话；他不太可能真正感受到情感的缺乏。

(“He really doesn’t do artifice well,” says Favreau.) Normally, Obama takes his speechwriters’ first draft and works from it.

（费儒说：“他的技巧确实不太好。”）通常情况下，奥巴马会采用演讲撰稿人的初稿并据此进行创作。

“This time he just threw it in the garbage can,” says Rhodes.

“这一次他只是把它扔进了垃圾桶，”罗兹说。

“The main reason I’m employed here is I have an idea of how his mind works.

“我受雇于这里的主要原因是我了解他的思维方式。

In this case, I totally screwed up.”

在这种情况下，我彻底搞砸了。”

The problem, in Obama’s view, was his own doing.

奥巴马认为，问题是他自己造成的。

He’d asked his speechwriters to make an argument he had never fully made and to state beliefs that he had never fully expressed.

他要求他的演讲撰稿人提出一个他从未充分提出的论点，并陈述他从未充分表达的信念。

“There are certain speeches that I have to write myself,” says Obama.

“有些演讲稿必须我自己写，”奥巴马说。

“There are times when I’ve got to capture what the essence of the thing is.”

“有时候我必须抓住事物的本质。”

Obama asked his speechwriters to dig up for him writings about war by people he admired: Saint Augustine, Churchill, Niebuhr, Gandhi, King.

奥巴马要求他的演讲撰稿人为他挖掘他所崇拜的人关于战争的著作：圣奥古斯丁、丘吉尔、尼布尔、甘地、金。

He wanted to reconcile the non­violent doctrines of two of his heroes, King and Gandhi, with his new role in the violent world.

他希望将他的两位英雄金和甘地的非暴力学说与他在暴力世界中的新角色相调和。

These writings came back to the speechwriters with key passages underlined and notes by the president to himself scrawled in the margin.

这些文章被送回演讲稿撰稿人手中，关键段落都划了下划线，页边空白处还写着总统给自己的笔记。

(Beside Reinhold Niebuhr’s essay “Why the Christian Church Is Not Pacifist,” Obama had scribbled “Can we analogize al-Qaeda?

（在莱因霍尔德·尼布尔的文章“为什么基督教会不是和平主义者”旁边，奥巴马潦草地写道“我们可以类比基地组织吗？

What level of casualty can we tolerate?”) “Here it wasn’t just that I needed to make a new argument,” says Obama.

我们可以容忍什么程度的伤亡？”）“这不仅仅是我需要提出新的论点，”奥巴马说。

“It was that I wanted to make an argument that didn’t allow either side to feel too comfortable.”

“我想提出一个不让任何一方都感到太舒服的论点。”

He’d received the unusable speech on December 8.

他在 12 月 8 日收到了那份无用的演讲。

He was due to be onstage in Oslo on December 10.

他原定于 12 月 10 日在奥斯陆登台演出。

On December 9 he had 21 meetings, on every subject under the sun.

12 月 9 日，他召开了 21 场会议，讨论了所有主题。

The only slivers of time on his schedule for that day that even faintly resembled “free time to write a speech to the entire world that I have to give in two days” were “Desk Time” from 1:25 to 1:55 and “ potus Time” from 5:50 to 6:50.

那天他的日程安排中唯一有点像“我必须在两天内向全世界写一篇演讲的空闲时间”的时间是从 1:25 到 1:55 的“办公桌时间”和从 5:50 到 6:50 的“potus 时间”。

But he also had the night, after his wife and children had gone to bed.

但他也在妻子和孩子上床睡觉后度过了一个夜晚。

And he had something he really wanted to say.

而且他确实有话想说。

That evening he sat down at his desk in the White House residence, in the Treaty Room, and pulled out a yellow legal pad and a No. 2 ­ ­pencil.

那天晚上，他在白宫官邸条约室的办公桌前坐下，拿出一本黄色便笺本和一支 2 号铅笔。

When we think of a presidential speech we think of the bully pulpit—the president trying to persuade the rest of us to think or feel in a certain way.

当我们想到总统演讲时，我们会想到霸道讲坛——总统试图说服我们其他人以某种方式思考或感受。

We do not think of the president sitting down and trying to persuade himself to think or feel a certain way first.

我们不认为总统会坐下来试图说服自己首先以某种方式思考或感受。

But Obama does—he subjects himself to a kind of inner bully pulpit.

但奥巴马却做到了——他让自己屈服于一种内心的欺凌讲坛。

Actually, he didn’t toss his speechwriters’ work in the garbage can, not right away.

事实上，他并没有立即将演讲撰稿人的工作扔进垃圾桶。

Instead he copied it out, their entire 40-minute speech.

相反，他抄下了他们整个 40 分钟的演讲。

“It helped organize my thoughts,” he says.

“它帮助我整理思路，”他说。

“What I had to do is describe a notion of a just war.

“我要做的就是描述一场正义战争的概念。

But also acknowledge that the very notion of a just war can lead you into some dark places.

但也要承认，正义战争的概念本身可能会将你带入一些黑暗的地方。

And so you can’t be complacent in labeling something just.

因此，你不能因为给某些东西贴上标签而沾沾自喜。

You need to constantly ask yourself questions.” He finished around five in the morning.

你需要不断地问自己问题。”他早上五点左右就完成了。

“There are times when I feel like I’ve grabbed onto the truth of something and I’m just hanging on,” he says.

“有时候我觉得我已经抓住了某些事情的真相，但我只是坚持下去，”他说。

“And my best speeches are when I know what I’m saying is true in a fundamental way.

“我最好的演讲是当我知道我所说的从根本上来说是正确的时候。

People find their strength in different places.

人们在不同的地方找到自己的力量。

That’s where I’m strong.”

这就是我的强项。”

A few hours later he handed his speechwriters six sheets of yellow paper filled with his small, tidy script.

几个小时后，他递给演讲撰稿人六张黄纸，上面写满了他那小而整洁的剧本。

In receiving a prize for peace, speaking to an audience primed for pacifism, he’d made the case for war.

在获得和平奖时，他向热衷和平主义的听众发表讲话，为战争辩护。

When the president handed him this speech, Rhodes had two reactions.

当总统将这段演讲稿递给他时，罗德有两种反应。

The first was that there is no obvious political upside to it.

首先，它没有明显的政治好处。

His second reaction: “When did he write it?

他的第二个反应是：“他什么时候写的？

That’s what I wanted to know.”

这就是我想知道的。”

On the plane to Oslo, Obama would fiddle with the speech a bit more.

在飞往奥斯陆的飞机上，奥巴马会对演讲进行更多修改。

“We were actually still putting in edits as I was walking onto the stage,” he tells me, laughing.

“当我走上舞台时，我们实际上仍在进行编辑，”他笑着告诉我。

But the words he spoke that evening were mainly those he wrote that long night at his desk in the White House.

但他那天晚上所说的话主要是他在白宫办公桌前那个漫漫长夜写下的。

And they explained not only why he might respond, as he was about to do, to an impending massacre of innocents in Ben­gha­zi, but also why, if the circumstances were even a little bit different, he might respond in another way.

他们不仅解释了为什么他可能会像他即将做的那样，对班加西即将发生的无辜者大屠杀做出反应，而且还解释了为什么如果情况有一点不同，他可能会以另一种方式做出反应。

T he principals reconvened in the Situation Room at 7:30 p.m.

下午 7 点 30 分，校长们在战情室再次召开会议。

The Pentagon now offered the president three options.

五角大楼现在向总统提供了三种选择。

The first: do nothing at all.

第一：什么也不做。

The second: establish a no-fly zone, which they had already conceded would not prevent a massacre in Ben­gha­zi.

第二：建立禁飞区，他们已经承认这不会阻止班加西的屠杀。

The third: secure a resolution from the U.N.

第三：获得联合国决议

to take “all necessary measures” to protect Libyan civilians and then use American airpower to destroy Qad­da­fi’s army.

采取“一切必要措施”保护利比亚平民，然后利用美国空中力量摧毁卡扎菲的军队。

“By the time I go to the second meeting I’m viewing the choices differently,” says Obama.

“当我参加第二次会议时，我对这些选择的看法有所不同，”奥巴马说。

“I know that I’m definitely not doing a no-fly zone.

“我知道我绝对不会进入禁飞区。

Because I think it’s just a show to protect backsides, politically.” In his Nobel speech he’d argued that in cases such as these the United States should not act alone.

因为我认为这只是一场政治上保护背后的表演。”他在诺贝尔奖演讲中指出，在此类情况下，美国不应单独行动。

“In these situations we should have a bias towards operating multilaterally,” he says.

“在这种情况下，我们应该倾向于多边运作，”他说。

“Because the very process of building a coalition forces you to ask tough questions.

“因为建立联盟的过程本身就迫使你提出尖锐的问题。

You may think you are acting morally, but you may be fooling yourself.”

你可能认为你的行为是道德的，但你可能在欺骗自己。”

He was trying to frame the problem not just for America but for the rest of the world too.

他不仅试图为美国而且为世界其他地区解决这个问题。

“I’m thinking to myself, What are the challenges, and what are the things we can do uniquely?” He wanted to say to the Europeans and to other Arab countries: We’ll do most of the actual bombing because only we can do it quickly, but you have to clean up the mess afterward.

“我在想，挑战是什么，我们可以做哪些独特的事情？”他想对欧洲人和其他阿拉伯国家说：我们将进行大部分实际的轰炸，因为只有我们才能快速完成，但事后你必须收拾残局。

“What I didn’t want,” says Obama, “is a month later a call from our allies saying, ‘It’s not working—you need to do more.’ So the question is: How can I cabin our commitment in a way that is useful?”

“我不想要的是，”奥巴马说，“一个月后，我们的盟友打来电话说，‘这不起作用——你需要做得更多。’所以问题是：我怎样才能以一种有用的方式履行我们的承诺呢？”

O bama insists that he still had not made up his mind what to do when he returned to the Situation Room—that he was still considering doing nothing at all.

奥巴马坚称，当他回到战情室时，他仍然没有决定要做什么——他仍在考虑什么也不做。

A million people in Ben­gha­zi were waiting to find out whether they would live or die, and he honestly did not know.

班加西有一百万人正在等待知道他们是生是死，而他真的不知道。

There were things the Pentagon might have said to deter him, for instance.

例如，五角大楼可能会说一些话来阻止他。

“If somebody had said to me that we could not take out their air defense without putting our fliers at risk in a significant way; if the level of risk for our military personnel had been ratcheted up—that might have changed my decision,” says Obama.

奥巴马说：“如果有人对我说，如果我们的飞行员面临重大风险，我们就无法摧毁他们的防空系统；如果我们的军事人员面临的风险水平不断提高，那可能会改变我的决定。”

“Or if I did not feel Sarkozy or Cameron were far enough out there to follow through.

“或者如果我不觉得萨科齐或卡梅伦足够远以贯彻到底。

Or if I did not think we could get a U.N resolution passed.”

或者如果我认为我们无法让联合国决议获得通过。”

Once again he polled the people in the room for their views.

他再次询问了房间里的人的意见。

Of the principals only Susan Rice (enthusiastically) and Hil­lary Clinton (who would have settled for a no-fly zone) had the view that any sort of intervention made sense.

在校长中，只有苏珊·赖斯（热情地）和希拉里·克林顿（愿意接受禁飞区）认为任何形式的干预都是有意义的。

“How are we going to explain to the American people why we’re in Libya,” asked William Daley, according to one of those pres­ent.

据一位在场人士透露，威廉·戴利问道：“我们如何向美国人民解释我们为何来到利比亚？”

“And Daley had a point: who gives a shit about Libya?”

“戴利说得有道理：谁在乎利比亚呢？”

From the president’s point of view there was a certain benefit in the indifference of the American public to whatever was happening in Libya.

从总统的角度来看，美国公众对利比亚发生的一切漠不关心是有一定好处的。

It enabled him to do, at least for a moment, pretty much whatever he wanted to do.

这使他能够做任何他想做的事，至少在一段时间内是这样。

Libya was the hole in the White House lawn.

利比亚是白宫草坪上的一个洞。

Obama made his decision: push for the U.N resolution and effectively invade another Arab country.

奥巴马做出了决定：推动联合国决议并有效入侵另一个阿拉伯国家。

Of the choice not to intervene he says, “That’s not who we are,” by which he means that’s not who I am.

对于不干预的选择，他说：“那不是我们。”他的意思是那不是我。

The decision was extraordinarily personal.

这个决定非常个人化。

“No one in the Cabinet was for it,” says one witness.

“内阁中没有人支持这一点，”一位目击者说。

“There was no constituency for doing what he did.” Then Obama went upstairs to the Oval Office to call European heads of state and, as he puts it, “call their bluff.” Cameron first, then Sarkozy.

“没有选民支持他所做的事情。”然后奥巴马上楼到椭圆形办公室给欧洲国家元首打电话，用他的话说，“揭穿他们的虚张声势”。首先是卡梅伦，然后是萨科齐。

It was three a.m.

当时是凌晨三点。

in Paris when he reached the French president, but Sarkozy insisted he was still awake.

当他到达法国总统时，他正在巴黎，但萨科齐坚称他还醒着。

(“I’m a young man!”) In formal and stilted tones the European leaders committed to taking over after the initial bombing.

（“我是个年轻人！”）欧洲领导人以正式而生硬的语气承诺在最初的爆炸事件后接管。

The next morning Obama called Medvedev to make sure that the Russians would not block his U.N.

第二天早上，奥巴马打电话给梅德韦杰夫，确保俄罗斯不会阻止他的联合国行动。

resolution.

分辨率。

There was no obvious reason why Russia should want to see Qad­da­fi murder a city of Libyans, but in the president’s foreign dealings the Russians play the role that Republicans currently more or less play in his domestic affairs.

俄罗斯并没有明显的理由希望看到卡扎菲谋杀一座利比亚人的城市，但在总统的外交事务中，俄罗斯人或多或少地扮演着共和党人目前在他的国内事务中扮演的角色。

The Russians’ view of the world tends to be zero-sum: if an American president is for it, they are, by definition, against it.

俄罗斯人的世界观往往是零和的：如果美国总统支持，那么从定义上来说，他们就是反对的。

Obama thought that he had made more prog­ress with the Russians than he had with the Republicans; Medvedev had come to trust him, he felt, and believed him when he said the United States had no intention of moving into Libya for the long term.

奥巴马认为他与俄罗斯人取得的进展比与共和党人取得的进展要大。他觉得梅德韦杰夫已经开始信任他，并且当他说美国无意长期进入利比亚时也相信了他。

A senior American official at the United Nations thought that perhaps the Russians let Obama have his resolution only because they thought it would end in disaster for the United States.

一位美国驻联合国高级官员认为，也许俄罗斯人让奥巴马通过他的决议只是因为他们认为这会给美国带来灾难。

And it could have.

它可能有。

All that exists for any president are the odds.

对于任何一位总统来说，唯一存在的就是可能性。

On March 17 the U.N.

3 月 17 日，联合国

gave Obama his resolution.

向奥巴马提出了他的决议。

The next day he flew to Brazil and was there on the 19th, when the bombing began.

第二天，他飞往巴西，并于 19 日轰炸开始时抵达巴西。

A group of Democrats in Congress issued a statement demanding Obama withdraw from Libya; Ohio Democratic congressman Dennis Kucinich asked if Obama had just committed an impeachable offense.

国会中的一群民主党人发表声明，要求奥巴马从利比亚撤军；俄亥俄州民主党众议员丹尼斯·库西尼奇询问奥巴马是否刚刚犯下了可弹劾的罪行。

All sorts of people who had been hounding the president for his inaction now flipped and questioned the wisdom of action.

一直因总统无所作为而对他进行攻击的各种人现在都转变了态度，质疑采取行动是否明智。

A few days earlier Newt Gingrich, busy running for president, had said, “We don’t need the United Nations.

几天前，忙于竞选总统的纽特·金里奇曾表示：“我们不需要联合国。

All we have to say is that we think slaughtering your own citizens is unacceptable and that we’re intervening.” Four days after the bombing began, Gingrich went on the Today show to say he wouldn’t have intervened and was quoted on Politico as saying, “It is impossible to make sense of the standard of intervention in Libya except opportunism and news media publicity.” The tone of the news coverage shifted dramatically, too.

我们要说的是，我们认为屠杀自己的公民是不可接受的，我们正在干预。”爆炸开始四天后，金里奇在《今日秀》上表示他不会进行干预，并被《政治》杂志援引他的话说：“除了机会主义和新闻媒体宣传之外，不可能理解对利比亚进行干预的标准。”新闻报道的基调也发生了巨大变化。

One day it was “Why aren’t you doing anything?” The next it was “What have you gotten us into?” As one White House staffer puts it, “All the people who had been demanding intervention went nuts after we intervened and said it was outrageous.

有一天，“你为什么不做点什么？”接下来是“你让我们陷入了什么困境？”正如一位白宫工作人员所说，“在我们进行干预并表示这令人无法容忍之后，所有要求干预的人都疯了。

That’s because the controversy machine is bigger than the reality machine.”

那是因为争议机器比现实机器更大。”

The minute the president made his decision a lot of people were obviously waiting for it to go wrong—for something to happen that could be seized upon to symbolize this curious use of American power and define this curious president.

总统做出决定的那一刻，很多人显然都在等待它出错——等待发生一些可以用来象征美国权力的奇怪使用并定义这位好奇的总统的事情。

On March 21, Obama flew from Brazil to Chile.

3月21日，奥巴马从巴西飞往智利。

He was on a stage with Chilean leaders, listening to a folk-rock band called Los Jaivas singing the story of the earth’s formation (their signature piece) when someone whispered in his ear: one of our F-15s just crashed in the Libyan desert.

他与智利领导人一起站在舞台上，聆听一支名为 Los Jaivas 的民谣摇滚乐队演唱地球形成的故事（他们的标志性曲目），这时有人在他耳边低语：我们的一架 F-15 刚刚在利比亚沙漠坠毁。

On his way to dinner afterward his national-security adviser Thomas Donilon told him that the pilot had been rescued but the navigator was missing.

随后在去吃晚饭的路上，他的国家安全顾问托马斯·多尼隆告诉他，飞行员已获救，但导航员失踪了。

“My first thought was how to find the guy,” recalls Obama.

“我的第一个想法是如何找到这个人，”奥巴马回忆道。

“My next thought was that this is a reminder that something can always go wrong.

“我的下一个想法是，这提醒我们，事情总是可能出错。

And there are consequences for things going wrong.”

出了问题就会产生后果。”

T he soldiers from the Libyan rebel militia who found Tyler Stark weren’t entirely sure what to make of him, as he didn’t speak Arabic and they didn’t speak anything else.

发现泰勒·史塔克的利比亚叛军民兵士兵并不完全确定他是怎么回事，因为他不会说阿拉伯语，而他们也不会说其他任何语言。

At any rate, he didn’t seem inclined to talk.

无论如何，他似乎并不想说话。

The Libyans were now of course aware that someone was dropping bombs on Qad­da­fi’s troops, but they were a little unclear about who exactly was doing it.

利比亚人现在当然知道有人向卡扎菲的军队投掷炸弹，但他们有点不清楚到底是谁做的。

After taking a good long look at this pilot who had fallen from the sky they decided he must be French.

在仔细观察了这位从天上掉下来的飞行员后，他们断定他一定是法国人。

And so when Bubaker Habib, who owned an English-language school in Tripoli, and was then hunkered down with fellow dissidents in a hotel in Ben­gha­zi, received the phone call from a friend of his in the rebel army, the friend asked him if he spoke French.

因此，当布巴克·哈比卜（Bubaker Habib）接到他在叛军中的一个朋友打来的电话时，他在的黎波里拥有一所英语学校，后来与其他持不同政见者一起蹲在班加西的一家酒店里，他的朋友问他是否会说法语。

“He tells me there is a French pilot,” says Bubaker.

“他告诉我有一名法国飞行员，”布巴克说。

“He’s crashed.

“他坠毁了。

Because I spent 2003 in France, I still have some French words.

因为我2003年是在法国度过的，所以我还有一些法语单词。

So I said yes.”

所以我就答应了。”

The friend asked if Bubaker would mind driving the 30 kilometers or so out of Ben­gha­zi to talk to the “French pilot,” so they could figure out the best way to help him.

这位朋友问布巴克是否介意开车离开班加西 30 公里左右与“法国飞行员”交谈，以便他们找到帮助他的最佳方法。

Even though it was the middle of the night, and you could hear bombs exploding and guns firing, Bubaker jumped in his car.

尽管是半夜，炸弹爆炸和枪声四起，布巴克还是跳进了车里。

“I found Stark sitting there, holding his knee,” says Bubaker.

“我发现斯塔克坐在那里，抱着膝盖，”布巴克说。

“He was, to be honest with you, frantic.

“老实说，他很疯狂。

He doesn’t know what is going on.

他不知道发生了什么事。

He was surrounded by the militia.

他被民兵包围了。

He doesn’t know if they are friends or enemies.”

他不知道他们是朋友还是敌人。”

“ Bonjour, ” said Bubaker, or maybe not—he has forgotten the first thing out of his mouth.

“你好，”布巴克说，也许不是——他已经忘记了他嘴里说的第一句话。

But in response Tyler Stark said something and Bubaker instantly recognized the accent.

但作为回应，泰勒·史塔克说了些什么，布巴克立即听出了他的口音。

“Are you American?

“你是美国人吗？

” asked Bubaker.

“布巴克问道。

Stark said he was.

斯塔克说他是。

Bubaker leaned over and told him that he actually had friends in the U.S. Embassy who had fled in the early days of the war, and that if Stark would come with him back to Ben­gha­zi he could put them in touch.

布巴克倾身告诉他，他实际上在美国大使馆有一些朋友，他们在战争初期逃离了，如果斯塔克愿意和他一起回到班加西，他可以让他们取得联系。

“He looked at me, astonished,” remembers Bubaker.

“他惊讶地看着我，”布巴克回忆道。

On the drive to Benghazi, Bubaker sensed that Stark was both shocked and wary.

在前往班加西的路上，布巴克感觉到斯塔克既震惊又警惕。

At any rate, as much as Bubaker might have wanted to know more about why America was dropping bombs on Libya, Stark would not tell him.

无论如何，尽管布巴克可能想更多地了解美国为何向利比亚投掷炸弹，斯塔克却不会告诉他。

And so Bubaker put on some 80s music and changed the subject to something other than war.

于是布巴克放了一些 80 年代的音乐，并将话题转向战争以外的话题。

The first song that came on was Diana Ross and Lionel Richie singing “Endless Love.” “You know what,” said Bubaker.

第一首歌曲是戴安娜·罗斯和莱昂内尔·里奇演唱的《无尽的爱》。 “你知道吗，”布巴克说。

“This song reminds me of my second marriage.” They talked the rest of the way, says Bubaker, “and we didn’t mention anything of any military action.” He drove the “American pilot” back to the hotel and instructed the militia to surround the place.

“这首歌让我想起了我的第二次婚姻。”布巴克说，他们一直在谈论剩下的事情，“我们没有提到任何军事行动。”他开车送“美国飞行员”回到酒店，并指示民兵包围该地。

Even in Libya they understood the fickle nature of American public opinion.

即使在利比亚，他们也了解美国舆论的变化无常。

“I told them, ‘We have an American pilot here.

“我告诉他们，‘我们这里有一名美国飞行员。

If he gets caught or killed it’s the end of the mission.

如果他被抓住或杀死，任务就结束了。

Make sure he is safe and sound.’” Bubaker then called his friend, the former staffer in the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, now removed to Washington, D.C.

确保他安然无恙。”布巴克随后给他的朋友打电话，他是美国驻的黎波里大使馆的前工作人员，现已调往华盛顿特区。

It took a few hours for someone to come and fetch Stark.

几个小时后才有人来接斯塔克。

As he waited with Bubaker inside the hotel, word spread of this French pilot who had saved their lives.

当他和布巴克在酒店里等待时，这位法国飞行员救了他们的命的消息传开了。

When they’d arrived at the hotel a man had handed Tyler Stark a rose, which the American found both strange and touching.

当他们到达酒店时，一名男子递给泰勒·斯塔克一朵玫瑰，美国人觉得这既奇怪又感人。

Now women from across the city came with flowers to the front of the hotel.

现在，全城各地的妇女都带着鲜花来到酒店门前。

When Stark entered a room full of people they stood up and gave him a round of applause.

当斯塔克走进一个挤满人的房间时，他们站起来并向他报以热烈的掌声。

“I’m not sure what I was expecting in Libya,” he says, “but I was not expecting a round of applause.”

“我不确定我在利比亚期待什么，”他说，“但我没想到会得到一片掌声。”

Bubaker found doctors to treat Stark’s leg and one of the doctors had Skype on his iPod.

布巴克找到医生来治疗斯塔克的腿，其中一位医生在他的 iPod 上安装了 Skype。

Stark tried to call his base, but he couldn’t remember the country code for Britain, so he called the most useful phone number he could remember, his parents’.

斯塔克试图给他的基地打电话，但他不记得英国的国家代码，所以他拨打了他能记得的最有用的电话号码，他父母的电话号码。

At some point Bubaker turned to him and asked, “Do you know why you are in Libya?”

某个时候，布巴克转向他问道：“你知道你为什么在利比亚吗？”

“He didn’t know why he’d been sent,” says Bubaker.

“他不知道自己为什么被派去，”布巴克说。

“So I showed him some video.

“所以我给他看了一些视频。

Of kids being killed.”

孩子们被杀。”

A t that moment there was a curious balance of power between the leader and the led.

在那一刻，领导者和被领导者之间出现了一种奇怪的权力平衡。

Tyler Stark was in harm’s way because of a decision Barack Obama had made, more or less on his own.

泰勒·斯塔克因为巴拉克·奥巴马或多或少自己做出的决定而受到伤害。

He was at the mercy of another man’s character.

他受到另一个人性格的摆布。

The president’s decision reached forward into the impersonal future—Qaddafi would be killed, Libya would hold its first free elections—but it also reached back into the personal past, to the things that had made Obama capable of walking alone into a room with a pencil and walking out a bit later with a conviction.

总统的决定涉及到非个人的未来——卡扎菲将被杀，利比亚将举行第一次自由选举——但它也涉及到个人的过去，那些使奥巴马能够独自拿着铅笔走进一个房间，稍后带着信念走出去的事情。

At the same time, the president was exposed to Tyler Stark.

与此同时，总统也接触到了泰勒·史塔克。

“That pilot” is the first thing Obama mentioned when asked what might have gone wrong in Libya.

当被问及利比亚可能出了什么问题时，奥巴马首先提到的是“那个飞行员”。

He was especially alive to the power of a story to influence the American public.

他尤其意识到故事影响美国公众的力量。

He believed he had been elected chiefly because he had told a story; he thought he had had problems in office because he had, without quite realizing it, ceased to tell it.

他相信自己当选主要是因为他讲了一个故事；他认为自己在办公室遇到了问题，因为他在没有完全意识到的情况下不再讲述这一点。

If the pilot had fallen into the wrong hands, or landed badly, or shot the dog, it would have been the start of a new narrative.

如果飞行员落入坏人之手，或者着陆失败，或者射杀了狗，这将是一个新故事的开始。

Then the story would no longer have been a complex tale ignored by the American public about how the United States had forged a broad international coalition to help people who claimed to share our values rid themselves of a tyrant.

那么这个故事就不再是一个被美国公众忽视的复杂故事，讲述美国如何建立一个广泛的国际联盟来帮助那些声称分享我们价值观的人们摆脱暴君。

The story would have become a much simpler one, ripe for exploitation by his foes: how a president elected to extract us from a war in one Arab country got Americans killed in another.

这个故事本来会变得更加简单，被敌人利用的时机已经成熟：一位总统选择将我们从一个阿拉伯国家的战争中解救出来，却导致美国人在另一个国家中丧生。

If Stark had come to grief, the Libyan intervention would no longer have been the hole in the White House lawn.

如果斯塔克不幸失败，利比亚的干预将不再是白宫草坪上的漏洞。

It would have been the Churchill bust.

这将是丘吉尔的半身像。

That is why Obama says that, as obvious as it seems in retrospect to have prevented a massacre in Benghazi, it was at the time “one of those 51–49 decisions.”

这就是为什么奥巴马说，尽管现在看来，这显然避免了班加西的大屠杀，但它在当时是“51-49 的决定之一”。

On the other hand, Obama had helped make his own luck.

另一方面，奥巴马也帮助自己创造了好运。

This time when we invaded an Arab country we Americans were genuinely treated as heroes—because the locals didn’t see our incursion as an act of imperialism.

这一次，当我们入侵阿拉伯国家时，我们美国人真正被视为英雄——因为当地人并不认为我们的入侵是帝国主义行为。

The president’s schedule on a recent summer day wasn’t quite as full as usual: 30 minutes with Hillary Clinton, another 30 with Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, lunch with the vice president, a long talk with his secretary of agriculture to discuss the drought.

最近一个夏日，总统的日程安排并不像往常那么满：与希拉里·克林顿 (Hillary Clinton) 会面 30 分钟，与国防部长莱昂·帕内塔 (Leon Panetta) 会面 30 分钟，与副总统共进午餐，与农业部长就干旱问题进行长谈。

He’d also hosted the Lady Bears of Baylor national-championship basketball team, done one TV interview, taped his weekly address, stopped in at a fund-raiser in a Washington hotel, and sat down, for the first time, to prepare for the coming debates with Mitt Romney.

他还主持了贝勒国家冠军篮球队的熊女士队，接受了一次电视采访，录制了他每周的演讲，参加了华盛顿一家酒店的筹款活动，并第一次坐下来为即将到来的与米特·罗姆尼的辩论做准备。

“The days that are challenging are not when you have a lot on your schedule,” he said.

“具有挑战性的日子并不是当你的日程安排很多的时候，”他说。

“Today was a little bit tougher than usual.” What made it tough was the bomb that had exploded on a Bulgarian tour bus, killing a bunch of Israeli tourists, and some reports out of Syria about civilians’ being murdered.

“今天比平时稍微艰难一些。”让事情变得艰难的是保加利亚旅游巴士上爆炸的炸弹，炸死了一群以色列游客，以及来自叙利亚的一些关于平民被谋杀的报道。

A few days earlier I’d asked him the same question I’d put to him on his airplane, about the range of emotional states that the presidency now required, and the speed with which the president was expected to move from one to the other.

几天前，我问了他在飞机上问过的同样的问题，即总统职位现在需要的情绪状态范围，以及总统从一种情绪状态转向另一种情绪状态的速度。

“One of my most important tasks,” he’d said, “is making sure I stay open to people, and the meaning of what I’m doing, but not to get so overwhelmed by it that it’s paralyzing.

“我最重要的任务之一，”他说，“是确保我对人们保持开放的态度，以及我正在做的事情的意义，但不要被它淹没以致瘫痪。

Option one is to go through the motions.

选择一是走过场。

That I think is a disaster for a president.

我认为这对总统来说是一场灾难。

But there is the other danger.”

但还有另一个危险。”

“No,” he had agreed.

“不，”他同意了。

“It’s not.

“不是的。

There are times when I have to save it and let it out at the end of the day.”

有时我必须把它保存起来，并在一天结束时把它放出来。”

I asked if he would take me to his favorite place in the White House.

我问他是否愿意带我去白宫他最喜欢的地方。

Leaving the Oval Office he retraced his steps along the South Portico.

离开椭圆形办公室后，他沿着南门廊原路返回。

The private elevator rose to the second floor.

私人电梯上升到二楼。

On the way up Obama seemed just a tiny bit tense, as if for the first time calculating the effects on his own domestic politics of bringing a stranger home unannounced.

在上任的过程中，奥巴马似乎有点紧张，仿佛第一次计算在未经事先通知的情况下将一个陌生人带回家对他自己的国内政治的影响。

We exited into a great hall, half the length of a football field, which appeared to function as the family living room.

我们走进一个大厅，有半个足球场那么长，看起来就像是家庭客厅。

The space, ridiculously impersonal, still felt homey compared with the rest of the White House.

与白宫其他地方相比，这个毫无人情味的空间仍然给人一种温馨的感觉。

Michelle was in Alabama at a public event, but Obama’s mother-in-law sat reading in a deep, soft chair.

米歇尔在阿拉巴马州参加一个公共活动，但奥巴马的岳母坐在一张又深又软的椅子上看书。

She looked up, curiously: she wasn’t expecting company.

她好奇地抬起头：她并不期待有人陪伴。

“My favorite place in the White House,” said the president, “is this way.”

“白宫里我最喜欢的地方，”总统说，“就是这条路。”

We walked down the living room, passing his study—a huge, formal room with a well-used feel to it.

我们沿着客厅走去，经过他的书房——一间宽敞、正式的房间，给人一种用过的感觉。

“You know,” he’d said to me once, after I’d asked him what it was like to move into the White House, “the first night you sleep in the White House, you’re thinking, All right.

“你知道，”有一次，在我问他搬进白宫是什么感觉后，他对我说，“你在白宫睡觉的第一个晚上，你会想，好吧。

I’m in the White House.

我在白宫。

And I’m sleeping here.” He laughed.

而我就睡在这里。”他笑了。

“There’s a time in the middle of the night when you just kind of startle awake.

“半夜的某个时候，你会突然惊醒。

There’s a little bit of a sense of absurdity.

有一点点荒诞的感觉。

There is such an element of randomness in who gets this job.

谁得到这份工作存在这样的随机性因素。

What am I here for?

我来这里是为了什么？

Why am I walking around the Lincoln Bedroom?

我为什么要在林肯卧室周围走动？

That doesn’t last long.

这不会持续很长时间。

A week into it you’re on the job.”

一周后你就可以上班了。”

We turned right, into an oval room painted yellow, apparently known as the Yellow Room.

我们右转，进入一个漆成黄色的椭圆形房间，显然被称为“黄色房间”。

Obama marched to the French doors on the far end.

奥巴马走向远端的法式大门。

There he flipped a few locks and stepped outside.

他打开几把锁，走出去。

“This is the best spot in the whole White House,” he said.

“这是整个白宫最好的地方，”他说。

I followed him out onto the Truman Balcony, to the pristine view of the South Lawn.

我跟着他来到杜鲁门阳台，欣赏南草坪的原始景色。

The Washington Monument stood like a soldier in front of the Jefferson Memorial.

华盛顿纪念碑像一名士兵一样矗立在杰斐逊纪念堂前。

Potted poinsettias surrounded what amounted to an outdoor living room.

盆栽的一品红环绕着相当于室外客厅的地方。

“The best spot in the White House,” he said again.

“白宫最好的地方，”他再次说道。

“Michelle and I come out here at night and just sit.

“米歇尔和我晚上来这里坐坐。

It’s the closest you can get to feeling outside.

这是您最接近户外的感觉。

To feeling outside the bubble.”

感受泡沫之外的感觉。”

A board Air Force One, I’d asked him what he would do if granted a day when no one knew who he was and he could do whatever he pleased.

在空军一号上，我问他，如果有一天没人知道他是谁，他可以做任何他想做的事，他会做什么。

How would he spend it?

他会怎么花呢？

He didn’t even have to think about it:

他想都没想：

When he was done, he thought again and said, “And if I had a second day …

说完后，他又想了想，说道：“如果我还有第二天……

” But then the airplane landed, and it was time for us to get off.

” 但随后飞机降落了，我们该下机了。

“If I were president I think I might keep a list in my head,” I said.

“如果我是总统，我想我可能会在脑海中保留一份清单，”我说。

“I do,” he said.

“我愿意，”他说。

“That’s my last piece of advice to you.

“这是我给你的最后一条建议。

Keep a list.”

保留一个清单。”

Now, standing on the Truman Balcony, little came between him and the outside world.

现在，站在杜鲁门阳台上，他和外界之间几乎没有什么隔阂。

Crowds milled about on Constitution Avenue, on the other side of the south gate.

人群在南门另一侧的宪法大道上涌动。

Had he waved, someone might have noticed him and waved back.

如果他挥手，有人可能会注意到他并向他挥手。

He motioned to the place from which, last November, a man with a high-powered rifle fired at the White House.

他指着去年 11 月一名男子拿着大威力步枪向白宫开枪的地方。

Turning, with only the slightest trace of annoyance, Obama pointed to the spot directly behind his head where the bullet struck.

奥巴马转过身，略带一丝恼怒地指着他脑后的子弹击中的地方。

Back inside I had had a feeling unhelpful to the task at hand: I shouldn’t have been there.

回到里面，我有一种对手头的任务毫无帮助的感觉：我不应该在那里。

When a man with such a taste and talent for spacing is given so little space in which to operate it feels wrong to take the little he does have, like grabbing water to brush one’s teeth from a man dying of thirst.

当一个具有如此品味和空间天赋的人被给予如此小的操作空间时，拿走他仅有的一点点感觉是错误的，就像从一个快要渴死的人那里抓水刷牙一样。

“I feel a little creepy being here,” I said.

“我在这里感觉有点令人毛骨悚然，”我说。

“Why don’t I get out of your hair?” He laughed.

“我为什么不离开你的头发呢？”他笑了。

“C’mon,” he said.

“来吧，”他说。

“As long as you’re up here, there’s one more thing.” He led me down the hall and into the Lincoln Bedroom.

“只要你还在这里，还有一件事。”他领着我穿过大厅，走进林肯卧室。

There was a desk, upon which rested some obviously sacred object, covered by a green felt cloth.

有一张桌子，上面放着一些显然是神圣的物品，上面覆盖着绿色的毡布。

“There are times when you come in here and you’re having a particularly difficult day,” said the president.

总统说：“有时候，当你来到这里时，你会经历特别困难的一天。”

“Sometimes I come in here.” He pulled back the cloth and revealed a handwritten copy of the Gettysburg Address.

“有时我也会来这里。”他拉开布，露出一份手写的葛底斯堡演说。

The fifth of five made by Lincoln but the only one he signed, dated, and titled.

这是林肯制作的五幅作品中的第五幅，但也是唯一一张由他签名、注明日期和标题的作品。

Six hours earlier the president had been celebrating the Lady Bears of Baylor.

六个小时前，总统正在庆祝贝勒熊女士。

Four hours earlier he’d been trying to figure out what, if anything, he would do to save lives of innocents being massacred by their government in Syria.

四小时前，他一直在想办法，如果有的话，他会采取什么措施来拯救叙利亚政府屠杀的无辜者的生命。

Now he looked down and read the words of another president, who also understood the peculiar power, even over one’s self, that comes from putting your thoughts into them.

现在他低下头，读着另一位总统的话，这位总统也明白，将你的想法融入其中所产生的特殊力量，甚至超越一个人的自我。