特朗普和希拉里的竞争变成相互攻讦

Both Disliked, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump Accentuate the Negatives
特朗普和希拉里的竞争变成相互攻讦

Voters weary of the taunts and insults of the 2016 primary season may pine for a White House campaign about issues. But the Hillary Clinton versus Donald J. Trump showdown is almost sure to disappoint them. It has quickly deteriorated into a scorched-earth contest about personality and temperament, with each side exploiting voters’ strong dislike of the other candidate.

对2016年初选季充斥的奚落与侮辱之辞感到厌倦的选民，或许渴望看到一场围绕议题展开的大选。但几乎可以肯定，希拉里·克林顿(Hillary Clinton)与唐纳德·J·特朗普(Donald J. Trump)的对决会让他们失望。它很快就演变成了围绕个人品性展开的“焦土策略”式的争斗，双方都在利用选民对另一位候选人的强烈厌恶。

“We have an explosive environment with two extremely negative candidates,” said Ed Goeas, a Republican pollster. “This is going to be a race to the bottom. It’s who can drive up the negatives the most.”

“这是一触即发的环境，两位都是极具负面力量的候选人，”共和党民意调查专家埃德·戈亚斯(Ed Goeas)说。“这会是一场竞次之战。比的是谁能最大程度地煽动负面的东西。”

Mr. Trump accused Mrs. Clinton over the weekend of abetting her husband’s infidelities by seeking to tarnish his accusers. He labeled her a “nasty, mean enabler.”

上周末，特朗普指责克林顿助推了丈夫的不忠行为，因为她试图抹黑指责他的人。他给克林顿打上了“恶毒、刻薄的促成者”的标签。

Allies of the Clinton campaign taunted Mr. Trump as “Dangerous Donald,” meant to raise fears of him gaining control of America’s nuclear arsenal, a charge soon to be echoed by more than $100 million in negative ads from a “super PAC” that successfully tarnished the 2012 Republican nominee, Mitt Romney.

克林顿竞选团队的盟友奚落特朗普是“危险的唐纳德”，意在挑起人们对他掌控美国核武库的担忧。在一个“超级政治行动委员会”投放上亿美元所做的负面广告中，这类指控很快会被再度提起。该委员会曾经成功地让2012年的共和党总统候选人米特·罗姆尼(Mitt Romney)形象受损。

The skirmishing threatens to mask the profound differences the candidates have on issues: whether America should welcome or exclude illegal immigrants, whether to secure peace by asserting power abroad or becoming a fortress at home, whether Washington mainly needs the kinks ironed out — or a dose of shock therapy.

这些冲突有可能会掩盖两位候选人在诸多议题上的深刻分歧：美国该友好对待还是坚决排斥非法移民；美国确保和平的方式该是在海外彰显力量还是在本土筑起堡垒；华盛顿应该一一化解那些难缠的问题，还是来一次休克疗法。

Mrs. Clinton has vowed to stick to issues. “I’m not going to run an ugly race,” she said over the weekend.

克林顿发誓要把注意力始终放在切实的议题上。“我不会打一场丑陋的比赛，”她在周末期间表示。

With polls showing that Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump, the likely nominees, are more unpopular than the candidates in any of the past 10 White House matchups, their campaigns are exploiting their rivals’ perceived flaws to appeal to certain demographic groups to reshape the Electoral College map.

民意调查显示，很可能成为两党候选人的克林顿和特朗普，比过去10次大选中的对手都更不受欢迎。在这样的背景下，双方的竞选团队都在利用对手可以察觉的缺陷进行发挥，以期博得特定群体的好感，从而改变大选的版图。

Clinton allies, for example, see an opportunity to win the battleground state of North Carolina because of Mr. Trump’s sharply unfavorable ratings with women.

比如，克林顿的盟友就看到了她在北卡罗来纳这个摇摆州取得胜利的机会，因为特朗普在女性选民中的支持率非常低。

The Trump campaign believes the number of white Democratic voters who find Mrs. Clinton untrustworthy could help tip Ohio and Pennsylvania into its column.

特朗普的团队则相信，感觉克林顿不可信赖的民主党白人选民为数不少，也许可以帮助他们将俄亥俄州和宾夕法尼亚州收入囊中。

“This election is not going to be about issues; it’s going to be a race about character and temperament between two of the most unpopular political candidates in history,” said Steve Schmidt, who managed Senator John McCain’s 2008 presidential race.

“这场大选不会围绕议题展开；它将是一场史上最不受欢迎的两位政治候选人就个人品性展开的较量，”曾在2008年约翰·麦凯恩参议员(John McCain)角逐总统时领导其竞选团队的史蒂夫·施密特(Steve Schmidt)说道。

Even though Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump are among the best known people in America, their unpopularity with the general electorate, as shown in polls, does not mean they cannot improve their images. President Obama in 2012 and George W. Bush in 2004 entered their re-election races with higher unfavorable ratings than their opponents but ultimately won.

克林顿和特朗普在选民中均不受欢迎，民意调查的结果证实了这一点。二人都位列美国曝光率最高的人物，但这并不意味着他们不能改善自己的形象。奥巴马总统2012年竞选连任时，初期的反对率比对手高，但他最终赢得了胜利。2004年布什的连任竞选也是如此。

The candidates’ selections of running mates, the national conventions, and especially the three presidential debates in September and October will offer broad new canvases on which to create impressions.

将提供大的新机会来改善选民心中印象的，包括两位候选人对于竞选伙伴的选择、他们在全国大会的亮相，以及尤其重要的在9月和10月举行的三次竞选辩论。

Mr. Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, said the candidate’s approval ratings would improve as a wider universe of voters got to know him.

特朗普的竞选经理科里·莱万多夫斯基(Corey Lewandowski)表示，随着更广泛的选民逐渐了解特朗普，他的支持率将会上升。

“Look at the nationwide polls for Mr. Trump right now: His favorable/unfavorables have continuously improved,” he said. “The more people that see and meet Donald Trump, the better he’s going to do.”

“看看特朗普目前在全国民调中的情况：他的支持率与反对率之间的比例在持续改善，”他说。“越多的人看到和接触到唐纳德·特朗普，他的支持率就会越高。”

Mr. Trump was viewed unfavorably by 57 percent of voters nationally in a CNN/ORC poll released this month, down from 67 percent in March, but he is still registering historic levels of unpopularity.

CNN/ORC本月发布的民调结果显示，全美选民中对特朗普持负面态度的人从3月的67%降到了57%，但这样的不受欢迎程度仍为史上最高。

Mrs. Clinton was viewed unfavorably by 49 percent in the recent poll, an improvement from 56 percent in March.

在最近这次民意调查中，有49%的人对希拉里持负面态度，比3月份的56%有所改善。

“Democrats dislike Trump and Republicans dislike Hillary, but Hillary is better liked among the Democrats than Trump is among the Republicans,” said Mr. Goeas, who worked for an outside Republican group opposed to Mr. Trump but said he would now support him as the presumptive nominee.

“民主党人不喜欢特朗普，共和党人不喜欢希拉里，但希拉里在民主党中的受欢迎程度，比特朗普在共和党人中的受欢迎程度要高，”戈亚斯说。他曾为一家反对特朗普的共和党外围团体工作，但他表示自己现在支持稳获共和党提名的特朗普。

But his effort to broaden support will soon face a barrage of negative television and web ads from a super PAC backing Mrs. Clinton, which promises much tougher criticism than Mr. Trump’s Republican rivals delivered.

不过，特朗普扩大支持的努力会很快面临一连串的火力狙击。支持克林顿的一个超级政治行动委员会准备大量投放有关他的负面电视和网络广告。该机构承诺将会对特朗普发起猛烈抨击，程度要远超他在共和党内的对手之前的做法。

“It would be a huge mistake to think we’ve had a real-world litigation of any of these criticisms of Trump,” said Geoff Garin, a pollster for the group, Priorities USA Action.

“认为我们会怕这些针对特朗普的批评真的惹上官司，可就大错特错，”来自这个名为“优先美国行动”(Priorities USA Action)的组织的民调专家杰夫·加林(Geoff Garin)说。

The group plans $125 million worth of advertisements in the run-up to Election Day. They will run in seven battleground states, emphasizing that Mr. Trump has “made his billions on the backs of others” and has a “temperament that’s ill suited to keep America safe,” said a spokesman, Justin Barasky.

“优先美国行动”计划在选举日之前投放价值1.25亿美元的广告。这些广告将在七个摇摆州播出，强调特朗普“踩在别人的背上赚取了数以亿计的资产”，强调他的“性格对于维护美国的安全非常不利，”发言人贾斯汀·巴拉斯基(Justin Barasky)表示。

“In some ways, Hillary’s negatives are already baked in the cake, and that is simply not the case with Trump,” Mr. Garin said. “Virtually all of Trump’s negatives are the product of his bizarre conduct, as opposed to any specific set of facts people have at their command about his record or what the course of a Trump presidency is likely to be.”

“从某种程度讲，希拉里的负面印象是既定的，这与特朗普的情况完全不同，”加林说。“实际上，特朗普的负面印象基本都由他的古怪言行引发，而非人们掌握了有关他的过去或能显示特朗普当上总统后会是怎样的某些特定事实。”

Mr. Trump has been foreshadowing attacks on Mrs. Clinton’s temperament. He is highlighting what he says is her lack of truthfulness about the 2012 attacks on Americans in Benghazi, Libya, an issue reflected in the high number of voters who tell pollsters that she is untrustworthy.

特朗普一直在铺垫针对克林顿品性的攻击。他在强调他所说的克林顿身上诚信的缺乏，即她在2012年美国驻班加西使团遇袭事件上表现得不可靠。从民意调查中可以看出，有相当多选民表示克林顿不可信任。

“When they called her on Benghazi, she was sleeping, folks,” Mr. Trump told voters in Indiana last week.

“当他们因为班加西事件给她打电话时，她在睡觉，伙计们，”特朗普上周在印第安纳州对选民说。

The Trump campaign is well aware that it needs to work to close a steep deficit with women, and that for many independent women, national security is the top issue. “Women are looking for security in our country, and they know I’m going to do the best job,” Mr. Trump said in Indiana.

特朗普的竞选团队很清楚，他们需要努力改进特朗普在女性选民中大幅落后的状况。他们也知道，对于很多女性独立选民来说，国土安全是最重要的议题。“女性期待我们的国家是安全的，她们知道我在这方面会做得最出色，”特朗普在印第安纳州表示。

The Clinton campaign foreshadowed last week that it would direct withering fire at Mr. Trump’s personality. It released two web ads, one using the words of his former Republican rivals against him (sample: “utterly amoral”), the other including a comment that he would be willing to use nuclear weapons against the Islamic State, even in Europe.

克林顿的竞选团队上周提示，他们将对特朗普的品性展开猛烈攻击。他们发布了两条网络广告，一条利用他之前在共和党内的对手对他的负面评价（比如：“完全不分是非”），另一条则包含一条评论——他会不惜动用核武器对付伊斯兰国(Islamic State)，甚至是在欧洲。