经济学人下载:希拉里克林顿 新书欠精彩

Lexington
莱克星顿

Hillary Clinton's bad book
希拉里·克林顿新书欠精彩

Her stodgy memoir is best understood as a briefing book for surrogates and “influencers”
对这本枯燥乏味回忆录的最好诠释是为代理人和有影响力者写就的简明手册

HILLARY CLINTON is a big fan of briefing books. As Barack Obama's envoy to the world she devoured great, thick binders on every subject imaginable, she writes in “Hard Choices”, a new memoir published on June 10th. As she worked tirelessly to prepare for summits and official trips to 112 countries, she admired the expertise of her diplomats. Only one thing bothered her. A few months into the job she asked the State Department to be more creative with graphics, after envying the flashier briefings carried by Pentagon brass. Soon, she beams: “there were plenty of coloured maps and charts to go around.”
希拉里·克林顿是这种简明手册的忠实粉丝。她在她6月10日出版的新回忆录《艰难抉择》中写道，作为奥巴马总统的代表出使全世界，她见多识广。在她不知疲倦地为她112国的峰会和出访做准备时，她还不忘对她的外交官表达钦佩。只有一件事让她烦心。入职几个月后，眼红五角大楼浮夸的简明手册，她要求国务院在制图上也能够更有创意一些。不久后，她终于能够笑得出来：“总算有足够多的彩色地图和图标了。”

Mrs Clinton's 600-page doorstopper is full of this stuff: micro-revelations which are earnest, dull and self-serving, all at the same time. “Hard Choices” is a frustrating read. The memoir has the cautious, polished, poll-tested feel of a campaign speech. A million copies have been printed. A multi-city speaking tour has begun. A first-day book-signing in Manhattan drew lines around the block and hundreds of reporters. A large campaign-style bus idled outside. It was sent by “Ready for Hillary”, a ginger group that wants the former secretary of state, first lady, senator and presidential contender to run again for the White House in 2016.
克林顿夫人这本让人望而却步的600页自传中充满了这样的小故事—急切、无聊、自娱自乐却又无足轻重的爆料。《艰难抉择》会是一次让人挫败的阅读经历。这本回忆录就像一本小心翼翼、千锤万凿、经得住选民考研的竞选演讲。100万本印刷完毕，计划在多个城市的巡讲蓄势待发。第一天在曼哈顿的签售会吸引了长长的队和数百名记者。一辆庞大的竞选风格的巴士停在外面。它是由激进团体“为希拉里准备”（Ready for Hillary）赠送的，该团体支持入主白宫。

A press strategy was even crafted to handle a single chapter of the book, addressing the low point of Mrs Clinton's time as secretary: the 2012 killings of four Americans by militants in the Libyan city of Benghazi, including America's ambassador. The chapter was leaked early and Democratic officials and “surrogates” (campaign jargon for folk who can speak for a candidate) briefed on Benghazi talking-points by a former Obama spokesman, Tommy Vietor, and Mrs Clinton's press guru Philippe Reines.
公关策略占据了《艰难抉择》中的整整一章，描述了克林顿夫人在担任国务卿时的低谷。那是2012年4名美国人在利比亚城市班加西收到激进分子袭击的时候，这4名美国人中，其中就有美国的大使。这一章在书籍出版之前泄露了出来，里面写道，当时，前奥巴马发言人汤米·费艾托和希拉里手下的媒体专家菲利普·莱因斯曾就针对班加西时间的要点对民主党内官员和“代理人”（竞选术语，指候选人发言人）进行简要说明。

Still Mrs Clinton says she has not yet decided whether to run. She did not write the book for followers of Washington's political soap opera, she says severely. Rather, it is for Americans keen to learn more about diplomacy in the Obama era, and the exercise of American power in the 21st century, she insists. Such pieties are not wholly convincing. For starters, much of the book smells of raw politics, rather than diplomatic history. Mrs Clinton stepped down as chief diplomat in 2013 with high public approval ratings (in part because her job lofted her above the partisan mire for four years), but a list of vulnerabilities too. “Hard Choices” doggedly works its way down that list.
但至今为止，希拉里称她还未决定是否参加选举。她严肃地说，她这本书不是写给华盛顿政治肥皂剧的剧迷看的，她坚持把这本书送给那些希望了解奥巴马时代的外交和21世纪美国的权利运作的人。这般虔诚并不是非常有说服力。因为首先，这本书更像在写政治，而非外交历史。2013年，希拉里在公众支持率一片大好的形势（部分原因是她的工作让她在四年时间里，暂离党派混战泥潭）下从第一外交官的职位上卸任，但即使那时，她也有长串弱点。而《艰难抉择》则固执地一项项弱化这些弱点的影响。

In the Benghazi chapter Mrs Clinton accuses conservative critics of mounting a “political slugfest on the backs of dead Americans”. She has a point. But in turn she constructs a political straw man, accusing critics of suggesting that diplomats stage an un-American “retreat” from the world. She leaves unanswered the more relevant question of whether the West's intervention in Libya, which she championed, left the country better off.
在班加西那一章里，希拉里谴责保守派的批评家们让“踩在死去美国人的背上进行的政治斗争”愈演愈烈。这话不无道理。但另一方面，她在谴责批评家暗示美国外交使得美国从国际舞台上以一个不怎么美国派的方式落荒撤退时，她实际上把这当做了挡箭牌，因为她避开了更需要揭露的问题，比如西方是否真的在干涉利比亚，而这项政策一直因为她认为对国家有利而得到她的支持。

After Ukraine lost Crimea to Russia, many Republicans accused Barack Obama and Mrs Clinton of having emboldened Russia with their 2009 bid to “reset” relations. Mrs Clinton retorts that Russia rolled into Georgia when George W. Bush was still in office, calls the “reset” a worthy attempt to work on areas of agreement while setting tough issues to one side, and blames its failure on Vladimir Putin, one of the world's “hard men”.
克里米亚从乌克兰沦陷俄罗斯之手后，许多共和党派人士谴责奥巴马和希拉里在2009年“重启”双方关系的提议成了俄罗斯的“雄心豹子胆”。但希拉里反击道，早在乔治·沃克·布什在任期间，俄罗斯也曾吞并格鲁吉亚，“重启”美俄关系是值得的，能够让双方求同存异，专心双方存在共识的领域，暂时搁置难题，而这次错在这位世界上的风云人物弗拉基米尔·普京。

Strikingly, other chapters involve veiled swipes at Mr Obama and his team. Mrs Clinton revisits painful disputes from the 2008 Democratic primary, when she felt subjected to sexist attack by Obama allies. She confirms a much-reported dispute from 2012, when she (in alliance with the then CIA chief, David Petraeus, and the then defence secretary, Leon Panetta) wanted to train and arm non-extremist Syrian rebels. Mr Obama decided the risks outweighed possible gains—a scepticism shared by White House aides. In the book she links this to a remarkably reductive account of Mr Obama's 2008 victory, writing: “After all, the President had been elected in large part because of his opposition to the war in Iraq and his promise to bring the troops home.”
值得注意地是，该书其他章节含沙射影地抨击了奥巴马总统及其团队。希拉里在书中重温了2008年民主党总统候选人预选时令人痛苦的争论，当时的希拉里深感自己受到奥巴马团队的性别攻击。她确认了2012年一次多见曝光的争论，那时她（和时任中情局主管大卫·霍威尔·彼得雷乌斯和时任国防部长莱昂·帕内塔）主张训练和武装叙利亚的非极端叛军。然而奥巴马总统则认为风险大于受益，而白宫助理也同样有此怀疑。在书中，她把这段往事与奥巴马2008年获胜演说中的一段叙述联系在了一起，评价道：“毕竟，总统得以当选的绝大部分原因，是因为他反对伊拉克战争，以及承诺把驻扎海外的美国军队带回家。”

Hawkishly, Mrs Clinton questions Mr Obama's decision to announce a fixed exit date for American troops in Afghanistan. She suggests that callow young Obama aides were wrong to urge a swift end to Hosni Mubarak's rule in Egypt. Finally, she addresses those who say she accomplished little. This is a popular attack: a recent conservative video shows young Hillary fans struggling to name her greatest accomplishment. She retorts with a long list of mid-sized successes, from democracy promotion in Burma to a 2012 ceasefire in Gaza, or projects to advance women's rights.
希拉里还强硬地质问奥巴马总统宣布从阿富汗撤军日期的决定。她暗示，奥巴马少不经事的助理团队不该操之过急地结束侯赛因 穆巴拉克在埃及的统治。最后，她赠言那些在她眼中成就甚少的人。这是时下流行的攻击方式——近期一个保守党派视频中，年轻的希拉里支持者正在为找出希拉里最大的成就而左右为难。她选择用一长串不大不小的胜利来反驳，从在缅甸推进民主，到2012年加沙地带的停火，到推进女性权利的项目。

If some chapters are too nakedly political for a work of foreign-policy analysis, then others are too worthy for many general readers. At times it feels as if none of those 112 countries is going to be missed out. Mrs Clinton offers accounts of African trade flows, a coup in Honduras, climate talks in Denmark, the fine work that Barbados has done with solar water heaters and her opinion of Canada (“our northern neighbour is an indispensable partner”). Those hoping for gossip will be disappointed. Few insiderish nuggets leaven the mix—though Mrs Clinton does explain why the secret service dislikes VIPs visiting Buddhist temples (they feel unready for emergencies without their shoes).
如果说，书中一些章节从外交政策分析来说，显得有些过于赤裸裸地政治化的话，那么对于许多一般读者，其他章节还是值得一读的。希拉里在书中叙述了非洲的贸易往来，洪都拉斯的停火和她对加拿大的观点（我们的北部邻邦是我们不可或缺的伙伴）。那些想要八卦的人怕要失望了。书中鲜有内部猛料为本书添色，不过希拉里的确解释了为什么特勤部不喜欢重要任务访问佛教寺庙（因为不穿鞋子，他们会觉得不能时刻准备着）。

Coming soon to a book group near you
去你身边的书会吧

To solve the mystery of what “Hard Choices” is for, think back to those Democratic surrogates being schooled on Benghazi talking-points. This is a briefing book for surrogates, and—beyond them—for the legions of “influencers” so prized by modern political campaigns: the amateur opinion-formers whose friends, colleagues and relatives listen to their political views, or follow them online. Understood as a briefing book, the memoir's oddities make more sense. It exists to offer talking points to each possible element of a future Clinton coalition—from folk worried about climate change to women who voted for Mitt Romney, who could imagine voting for Hillary, but whose husbands are obsessed with Benghazi. It never needed to be a good read.
要弄清楚“艰难抉择”目的为何，只要想一想班加西事件中给“代理人”提供的要点教育就明白了。这是对代理人的一份简明手册，不仅如此，这同样是针对众多在现代政治竞选中饱受褒奖的“有影响力的人”，他们是熟练的舆论导向者，引导他们的同事亲友听取他们的政治见解，或在网络上关注他们。作为一份“简明手册”来理解，这本书就不再让人困惑了。它的存在，是为了向每一个潜在的希拉里自己人提供话术，这其中，可能有担心气候变化的人，有为米特·罗姆尼（Mitt Romney）投票的女人们，她们也许想过投票给希拉里，但无奈自家丈夫痴迷班加西事件。从这个角度来看，这本书不需要是一本好书。