经济学人下载:反对派调查 电子版发奸擿伏

Opposition research
反对派调查

Digging dirt, digitally
电子版发奸擿伏

How to ensure that dumb things politicians say get a wide audience
怎样保证政客们把持的那些不为人知叫座连连

One of the houses the Clintons bought when they were “dead broke”WHEN Bruce Braley, a little-known Iowa Democrat, dismissed Senator Charles Grassley as “a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school” (a description that fits a lot of Iowa voters), he may not have expected his remarks to be posted online. He should have. America Rising, a firm that conducts “opposition research” on behalf of Republicans, was delighted to disseminate his gaffe, since Mr Braley is running in Iowa for an open US Senate seat.
克林顿夫妇的其中一所房子是在他们山穷水尽时购置的，当时正值来自洛瓦的一名叫做布鲁斯 布拉里的民主党无名小卒称议员查尔斯 格拉斯利是一名从未步入法律院校大门的农民（这种描述对于很多洛瓦选民同样适用），他做梦都不会想到他的言论会在网上曝光，但他早就该有所准备。共和党代表美国崛起公司专门从事反对派的调查活动，它为此欢呼雀跃，奔走呼告，因为布拉里当时正在竞选美国议员席位。

The recording, made as Mr Braley was soliciting donations from trial lawyers, has hobbled his campaign.Opposition research is as old as politics itself—Cicero's orations against Catiline, a dodgy candidate for the Roman consulship in 63BC, were notably well-informed. But some parties are better than others at “oppo”, as it is now called. Democrats outdid Republicans in 2012 thanks partly to the professionalism of American Bridge 21st Century (“Bridge”), which was set up in 2010 and is backed by George Soros, a financier, and others. Bridge prepared dossiers on prominent Republicans and sent staffers to film Republican candidates' every move, waiting to pounce on ill-chosen words.
录音中，布拉里正向辩护律师寻求资金支持，这使他的竞选活动深陷沼泽，反对派调查的发展历史与政治人士本身不相上下，其最早可追溯到时西塞罗与喀提林一场人尽皆知的辩论，喀提林是公元前63年罗马执政官的竞选者，巧舌如簧。但是在“opp”中（如今人们这么称呼他），一些党派真是鹤立鸡群，如“21世纪美国之桥”（“桥”），其内部专业人士在2012年民主党击败共和党中立了大功，2010年它在金融学家乔治索罗斯和其他一些人的支持下创立，它建立一些声名显赫的共和党人的档案，派遣成员记录下共和党竞选者的一举一动，并大肆渲染每一个错用的单词。

It worked. Bridge circulated a video of Todd Akin, a Missouri Republican running for the Senate, using the phrase “legitimate rape”. Mr Akin later said he meant “forcible”, not “legitimate”, but the gaffe probably cost him the election.
这招确实奏效，它曾制作了一部密苏里共和党议员候选人都德阿金的视频，视频中他使用了“合情理强奸”一词，后来他说它是指“强制性强奸”不是“合情理”，但这种错误还是造成其落选。

O tempora, o mores
啊,时代呀!啊,风尚呀!

For the presidential campaign, Bridge helped to drive a national conversation about Republican nominee Mitt Romney's past in private equity, allowing Barack Obama to benefit from bare-knuckle capitalist-bashing without having to roll up his own sleeves. Bridge is now gearing up for this year's congressional races; it reports raising and spending over 2.6m in the first three months of 2014.
在总统选举中，该组织同样推动了一场关于共和党提名人选罗姆尼私募股权的过去，其结果是，奥巴马不费丝毫力气，借了资本家抨击的刀，坐收渔翁之利。如今，美国之桥正在为今年的国会选举整装待发，它的报道量攀升，在2014年的前三个月的开支便达到了260万美元。

After Mr Romney lost, Republican grandees were determined to build a national rival to Bridge. Matt Rhoades, a former Romney campaign manager, joined Tim Miller and Joe Pounder, former Republican National Committee officials, to lead the way. They took 100,000 from the remnants of a pro-Romney campaign fund and more cash from big donors, and set about hiring researchers and “trackers”.
自从罗姆尼失利后，共和党政要便一心想要为美国之桥树立劲敌，在这一点上，罗姆尼阵营前领导者马特罗迪斯和共和党国家委员会成员蒂姆 米勒，琼 鲍德携手开创了先河，他们从支持罗姆尼的资金余额中拿出10万美元，又向捐助者大量集资，正着手雇佣研究和记录人员。

America Rising hopes that its investigations and ever-expanding store of video footage will help Republicans, or at least force Democrats to watch what they say. “Back in the old days, Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu a Democrat could go down to Louisiana and say one thing about her position on energy, and then go talk to some liberal donors and say another thing,” says Mr Miller.More or less every word a candidate says now lives online somewhere. So groups like Rising and Bridge can build enormous, searchable databases of their opponents' statements and systematically search for contradictions.
“美国崛起”希望，调查的增加和视频的堆积会助共和党一臂之力或至少也让民主党对其所言小心谨慎，米勒说“在过去，路易斯安那民主党议员玛丽， 可以来到路易斯安那州对于他的立场大放厥词，但在一些自由捐助人士面前却抛射另一套理论。”可以说，在当今这个社会里，竞选人所说的每一个单词在网络上都有迹可循，因此，崛起和桥一类的组织都能建立一套有关他们对手言论的数据库，容量巨大，搜寻便利，可用来系统的搜索与之对立的信息。

When they find one, they can alert reporters, or sympathetic activists who can then create ads or web campaigns exploiting the discovery. Both Rising and Bridge are constantly in touch with these other groups, coordinating their attacks. The most valuable employee is no longer a loyalist willing to trail a candidate for months, but a skilled digital researcher.The two oppo groups are already building cases against possible presidential candidates for 2016.
一旦他们捕捉到什么，他们便告知记者或与之同呼吸的激进分子，这些人利用广告或网络活动深入挖掘发现的用处，崛起和桥都和其他组织紧密相连，协调攻击。最有价值的雇员不再是那种心甘情愿跟踪一个竞选者长达几个月的人，而是一个技术精湛的电子调查员。这两个反对党派组织已经在积蓄力量，其目标就是可能于2016年参选的竞选人。

Bridge has been digging for dirt on New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, some of it relating to a traffic jam on a bridge that his aides are alleged to have caused to punish a mayor who crossed him. They are also scouring documents related to an investigation of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's campaign finances.And of course Bridge and Rising are at war over Hillary Clinton. The Republicans have a dedicated anti-Hillary team, are building a video archive of all her appearances, have published an e-Book to pick apart her recent memoir and are posting shareable barbs, such as pictures of two rather grand houses the Clintons bought around the time when Mrs Clinton said they were “dead broke”. Mrs Clinton's defenders at Bridge have created an organisation called “Correct the Record” to rebut Republican attacks on the former secretary of state.
桥正致力于挖掘新泽新洲州长克里斯 克里斯蒂的负面新闻，其中一些是关于他的助手处罚了一个在交通拥堵中超他车的市长，另一些文件积累是为了调查威斯康辛州州长竞选财政问题。当然，在希拉里克林顿问题上，桥和崛起之间也是硝烟四起，共和党领导的是一个反克林顿集团，他们正在制作所有希拉里抛头露面的视频合辑，并发表了一部电子书在希拉里最近的自传中挑肥拣瘦，锋芒毕露，例如，有两张图是希拉里在其声称山穷水尽时所购置的两套气势恢宏的住房，桥内部希拉里的捍卫者们创立了一个名叫“记录纠错”的组织，反击共和党对这位前国务卿的攻击。

Over the past decade oppo has turned from an art into a science, with fewer camera-wielding college students hiding behind trees and more staff staring at screens all day, monitoring livestreamed interviews and campaign events. Both sides dream of upending an opponent with an Akinesque “gotcha”, but the daily reality is more mundane. On Rising's website, the self-explanatory headline above one video is “Rep. Joe Garcia (D-FL) Picks His Ear And Eats It”.
经过十年，反对党调查组织已从一种艺术演变为一种科学，在树后手持相机躲躲闪闪的大学生渐渐淡出了视野，取而代之的是一群目不转睛盯着屏幕的工作人士，审阅各种直播的访谈和竞选活动。两者都梦想放倒对手，欢呼难倒你了，但事实更为平淡乏味，在崛起的网站，一则视频上的导语解释道：共和党琼 加西亚掏掏耳屎并吃了它”