‘Accelerate the Endgame’: Obama’s Role in Wrapping Up the Primary
奥巴马在民主党初选中扮演了什么角色？

Over the past year, Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama practiced a political distancing of sorts, with Obama maintaining a posture of public neutrality in the Democratic primaries, offering counsel to any candidate who called (most did), and Biden saying he wanted to win on his own.

过去一年里，乔·拜登(Joe Biden)和前总统贝拉克·奥巴马(Barack Obama)在政治上保持着一定的距离，奥巴马在民主党初选中保持了一种公开中立的姿态，任何候选人来电话，他都会提供建议（多数人也都这样做了），而拜登则说想靠自己赢得选举。

But with calibrated stealth, Obama has been considerably more engaged in the campaign’s denouement than has been previously revealed, even before he endorsed Biden on Tuesday.

不过，尽管如此精心地隐蔽起来，奥巴马在这场竞选终局部分的参与，仍然比之前披露的要多很多，即便在他周二宣布支持拜登之前就已如此。

For months, Obama had kept in close contact with senior party officials, in hopes of preventing a repeat of the protracted and nasty 2016 primary race.

几个月来，奥巴马一直与党内高级官员保持密切联系，希望防止2016年那样漫长而恶劣的初选重演。
 

2016年，小约瑟夫·R·拜登副总统和贝拉克·奥巴马总统。奥巴马对今年初选的参与，比之前披露的要多得多。

Then, in the weeks after it became clear that Biden was the party’s near-certain nominee, Obama — telling a friend he needed to “accelerate the endgame” — had at least four long conversations with his former vice president’s remaining rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders. Obama’s efforts to ease the senator out of the race played a significant role in Sanders’ decision to end his bid and endorse Biden, according to people close to the Vermont independent.

随后，在拜登几乎确定成为民主党提名人的几周后，奥巴马告诉一位朋友，他需要“加快终局的推进”——与他的前副总统仅存的对手、伯尼·桑德斯(Bernie Sanders)参议员进行了至少四次长谈。据熟悉桑德斯的人士透露，奥巴马要他退出竞选的建议，在他终止竞选、支持拜登的决定中发挥了重要作用。

By that time, Biden and Obama had already begun hashing out the thorny questions of how, when and where to deploy a former president thrust into an unfamiliar role as his sidekick’s sidekick.

那时，拜登和奥巴马已经开始具体讨论棘手的问题：将在何时何地，如何安排前总统扮演他所不熟悉的角色，为他当年的“小弟”充当“小弟”。

How to proceed is a negotiation between friends but a delicate one. The terms of the reunion, however welcome, are complicated by an intermingling of political and personal issues, according to interviews with a dozen people close to both men who spoke mostly on the condition of anonymity.

如何处理这些问题是朋友之间的谈判，但这是一场微妙的谈判。与两人关系密切的十几名人士接受采访时表示，再度联手虽然是双方都乐意的事，但由于政治和个人问题交织在一起，联合的条件变得复杂起来。这些人大多要求匿名。

Now, with the primary campaign over, Biden and his aides are eager to deploy the former president as quickly as possible, especially on fundraising, as they race to compete with President Donald Trump’s small-donor juggernaut.

现在，随着初选结束，拜登和他的助手们急于尽快有效地利用这位前总统，尤其是在筹款方面，因为他们要与唐纳德·特朗普总统靠小额捐款形成的强大力量抗衡。

“Biden has obviously achieved something huge here on his own, but the president is a surrogate unlike anyone else anyone can bring to bear — I mean, who has Trump got?” said Joel Benenson, Obama’s longtime pollster and a top adviser to Hillary Clinton in 2016. “Getting to the point where he can get Obama involved, you know, that’s a big deal.”

“拜登显然凭自己的力量取得了巨大的成就，但总统是任何人都无法替代的——我的意思是，特朗普身边有谁呢？”为奥巴马做民调工作多年、希拉里·克林顿(Hillary Clinton)在2016年的高级顾问乔·本纳森(Joel Benenson)说。“到了他能让奥巴马参与的程度，你知道，这可是一件大事。”

Obama is open to whatever the campaign suggests, according to several people familiar with his thinking. But he continues to counsel caution, the better to preserve his political capital and to avoid the perception that he is somehow coming in to rescue Biden.

据几位熟悉奥巴马想法的人士透露，奥巴马对竞选活动提出的任何建议都持开放态度。但他仍建议保持谨慎，以便更好地保留自己的政治资本，避免让人觉得他是来拯救拜登的。

A more immediate matter is the logistical challenge of taking on a sitting president during a pandemic and an economic collapse. And Obama, like Trump, is less adept at recording direct-to-camera pitches than at delivering rousing speeches before live crowds, a scenario that social-distancing restrictions have made impossible for the foreseeable future.

更紧迫的问题是，在新冠大流行和经济崩溃期间，与现任总统的较量存在一些实务上的困难。和特朗普一样，奥巴马更擅长在现场面对观众发表激动人心的演讲，而不是面对镜头录制演讲。然而由于限制社交距离禁令，在可预见的未来，现场面对观众演讲是不可能做到的。

The Obama endorsement came in a sober but impassioned 12-minute endorsement video released Tuesday morning. “I’m so proud to endorse Joe Biden for president of the United States,” Obama said, his face shot in close-up. “I believe Joe has all the qualities we need in a president right now.”

在周二上午发布的一段冷静而充满激情的12分钟视频里，奥巴马宣布支持拜登。“我很自豪能支持乔·拜登成为美国总统，”奥巴马说，画面显示了他面部的特写镜头。“我相信乔具备我们现在所需要的总统的一切品质。”

Obama offered a preview of how he plans to pitch Biden, less as a traditional stand-alone candidate than as the standard-bearer for a larger Democratic coalition bound by decency and competence. And after drawing Sanders into that fold, calling him “an American original, a man who has devoted his life to giving voice to working people’s hopes,” he concluded the video with: “Join us. Join Joe.”

对于如何推销拜登，奥巴马提供了一个预演，不是将他当作一名传统的独立候选人，而是作为结合了正直和才能的广泛民主联盟的领袖。在把桑德斯吸引回来后，他称赞他为“原汁原味的美国人，一生致力于为劳动者的希望发声”，他以“与我们携手。与乔携手。”作为影片的结尾。

The camps are still working out the details of engaging Obama in fundraising. But David Plouffe, who remains Obama’s most trusted political adviser, has offered to pitch in, and plans to participate in several virtual Biden fundraisers that could be a dry run for Obama’s participation, according to people briefed on the plans.

竞选团队仍在制定让奥巴马参与筹款的细节。但据知情人士透露，现在仍是奥巴马最信任的政治顾问的戴维·普洛夫(David Plouffe)主动请缨，并计划参加几场拜登的虚拟筹款会，这些活动可能是奥巴马参与前的演习。

Biden is grateful for Obama’s friendship but increasingly proud of his historic comeback. When news reports surfaced that Obama had called to congratulate Biden on his victory in South Carolina, the candidate made it clear to his staff that while his connection to Obama played a role in delivering African American voters, Obama “had not lifted a finger” on his behalf, according to a senior Democrat with knowledge of his remarks.

拜登感谢奥巴马的友谊，但对他自己这场空前的复出越来越感到自豪。据一位了解他的民主党资深人士透露，当有新闻报道称奥巴马致电祝贺拜登在南卡罗来纳州的胜利时，这位候选人向他的工作人员明确表示，尽管他与奥巴马的关系在推动非裔美国选民方面发挥了作用，但奥巴马“没有动一根手指”。

Well, maybe a pinkie. Last year, Obama consulted with Biden’s team on campaign strategy, and he bucked up Biden after his loss in the Iowa caucuses. In a private dinner last fall with members of the liberal Democracy Alliance, Obama offered thinly veiled criticism of Sanders’ “revolutionary” policies and opined that voters wanted change, not to “tear down the system.”

这个嘛，也许动了动小拇指。去年，奥巴马向拜登的团队提供了竞选策略建议，艾奥瓦党团会议选战失利后，还为拜登鼓劲。去年秋天与自由派组织民主联盟(Democracy Alliance)成员进行的一次私人晚宴上，奥巴马对桑德斯的“革命式”政策提出了含蓄的批评，并认为选民想要的是改变，而不是“推翻体制”。

Obama is relieved that the Democratic contest is over early, but he had other plans for 2020 — hoping to finish, publish and promote his White House memoirs before the campaign kicked into high gear.

奥巴马对民主党大选已经提前结束感到松了一口气，但他还有其他的2020年计划——希望在竞选活动白热化之前完成、出版和宣传他的白宫回忆录。

He had intended to engage publicly only after the convention (now scheduled for August, at the earliest), in line with his fall barnstorming campaign on behalf of Clinton in 2016 and congressional candidates in 2018. He resisted calls by some Democratic officials earlier this year to intervene on Biden’s behalf in the wake of Sanders’ victory in the Nevada caucuses, arguing that he did not want to “thumb the scale” for his friend.

他原本打算在大会（现定最早于8月举行）结束后公开参与，当初在2016年的克林顿和2018年的国会候选人的秋季巡回竞选活动中，他就是这样做的。在桑德斯获得内达华州党团会议初选胜利后，一些民主党官员今年早些时候提议奥巴马代表拜登出面干预，被他拒绝，理由是他不想为了朋友而去“作弊”。

Nonetheless, he was becoming more agitated by the state of the race as Sanders surged, and Biden slumped. By late February, he was telling people in his orbit that he thought Biden’s campaign had an alarming lack of “infrastructure” and shared his doubts about Biden’s belief that he could win the nomination after losing Iowa and New Hampshire.

但是，随着桑德斯的蹿升和拜登的滑落，他对选战态势越来越感到不安。到2月下旬，他对身边人说，拜登的竞选缺乏“基础设施”这一点令他担心，而拜登在失去艾奥瓦州和新罕布什尔州之后仍相信自己能获得提名，也让他心存疑虑。

Democratic officials say Obama had no direct role in the campaign shake-up that happened soon after. But people with knowledge of the situation say he made it clear that he supported Biden’s decision to name a new campaign manager, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, a former Obama campaign field organizing specialist, and to move another Obama veteran, former White House communications director Anita Dunn, into a more powerful role.

民主党官员说，奥巴马没有直接参与此后不久的竞选策略调整。但了解情况的人士说，他明确表示，他支持拜登的决定——任命前奥巴马竞选场地组织专家珍妮弗·奥马利·狄龙(Jennifer O'Malley Dillon)为新的竞选经理，并将另一位奥巴马的老部下、前白宫通讯主管安妮塔·邓恩(Anita Dunn)提拔到更高的职位。

Obama did not directly encourage Sanders’ rivals to endorse Biden before the decisive Super Tuesday primaries. But he did tell Pete Buttigieg, a moderate, that he would never have more leverage than on the day that he was quitting the race — and the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor soon joined the avalanche of former candidates backing Biden.

奥巴马并没有直接鼓励桑德斯的对手在决定性的超级星期二初选之前支持拜登。但是他的确对温和派的皮特·布蒂吉格(Pete Buttigieg)说，宣布退选那一天的他，掌握着与人谈条件的巨大资本——这位前印第安纳州南本德市长很快就加入了支持拜登的前候选人的行列。

Sanders, who in 2016 accused the Democratic establishment of conspiring to support Clinton, took note of all these moves, but he has made no such charges against Obama.

曾在2016年指责民主党建制势力密谋支持克林顿的桑德斯，注意到了所有这些举动，但他并未对奥巴马做出类似的指责。

In fact, one of his campaign advisers, speaking on the condition of anonymity in the wake of last month’s string of Sanders defeats, said the senator was grateful for Obama’s neutrality throughout the campaign. And Sanders, who has denied reports that he contemplated a primary challenge to Obama in 2012, had made a point of reaching out to the former president several times in recent months to update him on the progress of his campaign.

实际上，他的一个竞选顾问在上个月桑德斯一连串的惨败后说，参议员对奥巴马在整个竞选期间的中立表示感谢。该顾问要求匿名。桑德斯否认有报道称他曾打算在2012年对奥巴马提出初选挑战，但桑德斯近几个月来曾多次与前总统进行接触，以告知他竞选活动的进展。

In the end, Sanders concluded that negotiating a détente through the former president would ease the blow of his withdrawal on his base. Whether Obama’s involvement will ultimately draw Sanders voters to support Biden’s candidacy remains an open question, and some supporters, including Sanders' own campaign press secretary, say they won’t.

最后，桑德斯得出结论，通过前总统来商讨一个缓和协议，可以减轻退选给他的选民造成的打击。奥巴马的参与是否最终会吸引桑德斯选民在大选中支持拜登，目前尚不得而知，而包括桑德斯自己的竞选新闻秘书在内的一些支持者表示并不会。

In late March, Obama reached out to Sanders. The two men would talk at least three more times, with the former president reassuring Sanders that he had already accomplished much of what he had set out to do, moving the party — and Biden — substantially to the left, according to two people with knowledge of their interactions.

3月下旬，奥巴马主动与桑德斯取得了联系。两名知情人士说，他们后来至少又进行了三次会谈，前总统希望桑德斯放心，他已经在相当程度上完成了他想要做的工作，让民主党——以及拜登——实现充分的左倾。

But, the people said, he mostly listened to Sanders, who was in a reflective mood, speaking candidly about his post-campaign plans and feelings about the race, the kind of conversation the two men had never had before.

但是，人们说，他主要是作为一个倾听者，听取沉浸在反思中的桑德斯坦率地谈论他在竞选后的计划，以及对选战的感受，两人此前从未有过这样的对话。

Sanders, for his part, is intent on protecting his open line of communication with the former president. When asked for a readout during an interview on MSNBC shortly after dropping out last week, he replied, “They’re private conversations,” waving a don’t-even-ask-me-about-it hand at the camera.

就桑德斯而言，他希望和前总统保持通畅的沟通渠道。在上周退选后不久，在接受MSNBC采访时被问到可否透露谈话内容，他对着镜头摆摆手表示不会说，并回答：“那是私人谈话。”

The interviewer, Chris Hayes, plowed ahead: “Well, can I ask about your conversations with Vice President Biden?”

采访者克里斯·海斯(Chris Hayes)继续问：“那么，我能问一下你与拜登副总统的谈话吗？”

“Oh, yes,” Sanders answered, with a laugh.