罗姆尼：一个充满矛盾的人

The leader Republicans will nominate for president this week is a man of many paradoxes, a figure well known yet not entirely understood, someone who has been examined for two full presidential campaigns but whose personal beliefs remain the subject of intense debate.

共和党本周即将提名的总统候选人罗姆尼(Mitt Romney)是一个身上存在许多相互矛盾特点的人，他的名字家喻户晓，但人们并没有完全了解他，他已经在两次总统竞选中接受公众的审视，但他的一些个人观点仍然是人们激烈争论的话题。

As a consequence, one of the great questions of this stormy convention week in Tampa is whether the mysteries of Mitt Romney will, at least to some extent, be resolved for voters in the next three days.

因此，当共和党全国代表大会本周于风雨交加之中在坦帕召开之际，人们心中最大的疑问之一是，未来三天是否会为选民解开有关罗姆尼的种种谜团？至少是在一定程度上解开。

One of the things a national convention does is allow a candidate to either introduce or reintroduce himself to the nation, and particularly to voters who aren't political junkies.

全国代表大会要做的事情之一，就是让候选人向全国选民介绍自己(或是重新介绍自己)，尤其是向那些对政治不那么狂热的选民作自我推介。

'I think they're still learning about him,' says Eric Fehrnstrom, a long-standing Romney adviser. 'The convention serves as a platform for satisfying a lot of people's curiosity about Mitt Romney.'

罗姆尼的长期顾问费恩斯托洛姆(Eric Fehrnstrom)说，我认为人们对罗姆尼的了解仍在进行之中。他说这次大会可以成为满足许多人对罗姆尼好奇心的一个平台。

This opportunity is particularly important for Mr. Romney, who didn't spend a lot of time explaining his life after winning the Republican nomination in the spring, as some candidates have. His campaign decided instead to take on the task this week.

这次机会对于罗姆尼来说尤其重要。在今年春天赢得共和党总统候选人提名之战后，罗姆尼并没有像一些候选人那样花许多时间解释自己的人生经历。他的竞选团队决定本周来搞定这个任务。

And while some politicians are easy to understand, he isn't one of them. The paradoxes only begin with the fact that he started his political life as a social-policy moderate in Massachusetts, but now champions a conservative line on abortion, gun control and gay marriage. He seems distant or even aloof to many who don't know him, yet inspires intense affection and deep loyalty among those in the circle immediately around him.

尽管一些政治人物很容易被公众理解，但罗姆尼却不然。最能体现罗姆尼身上矛盾之处的是，在马萨诸塞州刚刚开始政治生涯时，罗姆尼是社会政策上的温和派，但如今他却对堕胎、枪支管制和同性婚姻问题持保守立常对于许多不了解他的人来说，罗姆尼让人有距离感，他甚至显得有点冷漠，然而在自己的亲密小圈子里，他却能激发人们强烈的爱慕和忠诚。

In an era of profound ideological divides, he doesn't strike either friend or foe as particularly ideological. Sometimes he has steered away from talking about his record as governor of Massachusetts, yet seems to have embraced it─including his championing of a controversial health-care overhaul─in recent days.

在一个意识形态分野严重的时代，罗姆尼从未给人以意识形态浓厚的印象，无论是对朋友还是对敌人。他有时对担任马萨诸塞州州长的经历避而不谈，但近段时间以来他似乎已经热衷谈论这段经历，包括他对一项饱受争议的医疗改革的支持。

He is cool and unflappable in his public persona, yet is known as a practical joker, and someone prone to the occasional angry outburst, in private. He is one of the wealthiest people ever nominated to be president, yet is famously cheap in his personal tastes.

在公众眼里，他孤傲冷漠、镇定自若，然而在私下里，他又是有名的恶作剧爱好者，和一个不时爆发愤怒的人。他是美国迄今为止所有获总统候选人提名者中最富有的一个，然而他在生活享受方面又是出了名的不讲究。

Even Democrats don't seem entirely sure what to make of him. Is he best attacked─as opponents as diverse as Ted Kennedy in the 1990s and his Republican opponents this year decided─as a 'weather vane' who moves whichever way the wind blows? Or, as the Obama camp has taken to more recently, as a captive of the extreme right wing of his party who can be counted on to adhere to its positions?

即使是民主党人似乎也不能完全确定该如何攻击他。是像特德·肯尼迪(Ted Kennedy)在上世纪90年代以及他在共和党内的竞争对手在今年那样，把他描绘成见风使舵的 头草？还是像奥巴马(Barack Obama)的竞选团队近日所做得那样，骂他是共和党极右翼势力的俘虏，注定会倒向极右翼立场？

Intriguingly, his cool and slightly enigmatic persona is something he has in common with the man he is trying to drive out of the White House, Barack Obama.

有趣的是，罗姆尼所展现出的冷静和稍带神秘的外在形象是他和奥巴马(Barack Obama)的共同点。但奥巴马恰恰是罗姆尼想在白宫取而代之的人。

Their backgrounds are wildly different in many ways─one the scion of a wealthy and prominent family that provided a traditional upper-class upbringing, the other the son of a single mother whose early life was unconventional by almost any standard. Yet they are similarly disinclined to engage in the backslapping common in their chosen profession, and can be almost clinical in analyzing problems before them.

从很多方面看，两人的背景存在巨大差异：一位出自富裕显赫的家族，在传统的上流社会中被抚养成人；另一位则是被单身母亲带大，无论以任何一种标准衡量，其早年经历都算得上不同寻常。但两人的相似之处在于，他们都不愿在自己选择的专业领域走寻常路，又都几乎可以做到客观理性地分析眼前的问题。

Mr. Romney is, for obvious reasons, the less well-known of the two despite the long road he has traveled to this point. How he goes about resolving some of the mysteries and uncertainties will be crucial to the outcome of an election just 70 days away.

尽管罗姆尼是一路跋涉才到了今天这个位置，但出于很明显的原因，他的名气不及奥巴马。罗姆尼在消除其身上的神秘感以及他给人的不确定感方面做得如何，对于他能否在70天后举行的总统大选中获胜将起到决定性作用。

That's because the race is close, and much of the electorate already is locked in on either the Obama or Romney side. The universe of undecided voters is small.

这是因为大选投票日已经临近，大部分选民已经确定了自己的立场，不是支持奥巴马就是支持罗姆尼，还在摇摆的选民已经为数不多。

A look inside polling data suggests that many of those who are undecided, or at least still persuadable, should be available to Mr. Romney. They don't tend to give Mr. Obama high marks for his job performance, they aren't inclined to think the country is on the right track and they are more conservative than liberal.

对民意调查数据的分析表明，在那些立场还未确定的选民（或至少仍然可以被说服的选民）中，许多人最终应该会支持罗姆尼。他们不太可能因奥巴马的政绩而给他很高评价，他们倾向于认为美国还未走上正确轨道，他们的政治观点比自由派要保守。

Yet the problem for Mr. Romney is that they don't have a particularly favorable image of him. They tend to hold more negative views of him than they do of Mr. Obama, and many of them are younger voters─the kind who have had a particularly hard time warming to Mr. Romney. A significant portion appear to think that he is out of step with them.

但罗姆尼面临的问题在于，这些中间派选民对他也没有什么太好的印象。相比奥巴马，这些中间选民对罗姆尼的看法更为负面。这部分选民中有很多是年轻人，这一人群在当前这个艰难时刻尤其难以对罗姆尼产生好感。其中很大一部分人似乎认为罗姆尼和他们步调不一。

'They (voters) don't know much about Mitt Romney and they have been told a bunch of terrible things about him,' says Haley Barbour, a former Mississippi governor and Republican national chairman.

密西西比州前州长、共和党全国委员会主席巴伯(Haley Barbour)说，选民们不是非常了解罗姆尼，他们听说了关于他的一堆负面消息。

Mr. Romney will arrive in Tampa with the support of conservatives well in hand, and his choice of Paul Ryan as his running mate has inspired a passion among them that had been in short supply.

罗姆尼将带着保守派的坚定支持抵达坦帕，罗姆尼选择莱恩(Paul Ryan)作为竞选搭档点燃了保守派人士的热情。在此之前，来自支持者的热情是罗姆尼最为缺乏的东西。

His challenge lies among those less convinced, about either him or the president. How Mr. Romney fills in the blanks for them─how he resolves the Romney mysteries─this week and in the debates to come will determine the outcome.

罗姆尼面临的挑战是要搞定那些在他和奥巴马之间游移不定的选民。在本周以及将要到来的辩论中，罗姆尼如何消除这部分选民的困惑（也就是说他如何揭开笼罩在自己身上的神秘面纱），将决定大选的最终结果。