總統與寵物

譯/劉晗 審訂/張政

總統與寵物

譯/劉晗 審訂/張政

Politics on Four Legs:Presidents and Their Pets

A dog saved Richard Nixon’s political career.

[2] In September 1952， Republican presidential nomine Dwight Eisenhower was furious with Nixon， his running mate1running mate（競選副總統的）競選搭檔。艾森豪威爾競選總統，尼克松作為他的搭檔競選副總統。in the coming presidential election.Nixon， who came from modest means2means收入。and lacked financial independence，had been accused of receiving illegal campaign contributions. According to Rick Perlstein’s Nixonland， Eisenhower expected Nixon to resign in a humiliating televised address for the good of his campaign.

[3] Instead， Nixon went on TV and produced one of the great populist3populist民粹主義，或平民主義，以維護平民的利益為由反對權威，不惜采取任何手段。masterstrokes of all time. He transformed himself into the sympathetic victim he believed he was. He explained he was deeply in debt， even to his parents. His wife， he pointed out， did not have a mink coat.4曾有抗議者手舉意指尼克松夫人的標語“尼克松（夫人）沒有貂皮大衣——只有冷冰冰的現金（No Mink Coats for Nixon—Just Cold Cash）”，這一舉動激怒了尼克松，于是他對此做出回應。And there was one gift， he insisted，that he would not return.

[4] It was a little cocker spaniel dog in a crate that he (a donor) sent all the way from Texas. Black-and-white spotted. And our little girl—Tricia, the six-year-old—named it Checkers. And you know the kids love that dog, and I just want to say this right now, that regardless of what they say about it,we’re going to keep it.5這段話節選自尼克松的演講。尼克松曾提起自己的兩個女兒渴望有條狗，得克薩斯州旅行商盧·卡羅爾知道后就給她們郵寄了一只剛出生的可卡犬。

[5] Overnight， Nixon went from being a shady politician to a downtrodden6downtrodden受壓迫的。guy struggling against heartless elites who wanted to take his kid’s dog away(no one had actually demanded he return the dog， but that was beside the point).

[6] Nixon’s opponents saw the speech as transparently manipulative， but Perlstein says that the new suburban class， struggling with their own mortgages， recognised one of their own in Nixon， who refused to give up that most emotionally-charged symbol of domestic stability.

[7] Nixon has gone down in history as America’s most villainous president.Homer Simpson7動畫片《辛普森一家》的男主人。even informed his son that Checkers was in “doggie hell” along with Hitler’s dog.

[8] But Nixon was not the first president to get political mileage by pretending his dog was being persecuted.Campaigning in 1944， the sainted Franklin Delano Roosevelt faced claims he had left his Scotch Terrier Fala behind in the Aleutian Islands and sent a naval destroyer to retrieve him at enormous cost. FDR ruthlessly mocked his Republican opponents， saying he didn’t resent personal attacks， but Fala “has not been the same dog since”.

[9] There is little doubt that dogs are politically useful. A half-serious study in the political science journal PS suggests a “diversionary8diversionary轉移注意力的。dog” theory. The authors fi nd that presidents display their dogs more during wartime and scandals，though less during economic crises，when the public does not want to see the president frolicking with a spoilt pet.

[10] Despite the hypnotic attraction of humans to cats， there have been far fewer of them in the White House， and they have generally avoided the cameras.An exception was Bill Clinton’s cat，Socks9因該貓背部毛色漆黑，四個爪子呈雪白色而得名。. In a daring triangulation strategy，Clinton kept a dog and a cat at the same time. It didn’t work out. Cats remain under-represented in Washington.

[11] Politicians may consider dogs a safer political choice. Dogs represent the loyalty and interdependence we associate with families. Bo， the Obamas’ first dog， was the result of a public promise Barack Obama made to his daughters on the night of his election to the presidency. According to journalist Dan Balz， one of the reasons Obama remained popular despite early job setbacks was his home life. Voters“remembered that each night when he was in Washington he had dinner with his wife and children in the White House residence”. Bo is cute in his own right， but he also reminds people of Obama’s strong， loving family.

[12] Cats are different. A massive study of the domestication of cats led to the conclusion “we think what happened is that cats sort of domesticated themselves”. Sort of. Cats are not known for their vigorous completion of tasks. They obtain things by highly evolved manipulation skills， as people who love them will readily admit. This is also an important presidential quality，but not one the president wants to remind people of. ■

一只狗拯救了理查德·尼克松的政

[2] 1952年9月，正值總統大選到來之際，共和黨總統候選人德懷特·艾森豪威爾卻沖著他的競選搭檔尼克松大發雷霆。尼克松收入平平，經濟不能自給，被指控收受非法競選捐款。里克·珀爾斯坦在《尼克松國度》中這樣描述：艾森豪威爾想讓尼克松在電視上發表演說，退出競選，以免拖累自己。

[3]誰知尼克松卻在電視上表演了一場精彩的民粹主義大戲。他把自己包裝成可憐巴巴的受害者，認為自己就是如此，說自己負債累累，甚至還欠了父母的錢。尼克松還指出，妻子根本沒有貂皮大衣，不過他確實收過一個禮物，而且不打算退還。

[4]是裝在木箱里的一只小可卡狗，贈送人千里迢迢從得克薩斯郵寄過來。小狗全身黑白斑點，我們6歲的小女兒特里西婭就給它取名叫“小棋盤”。你們知道，孩子們都很喜歡它。所以現在我要說清楚，不管他們怎么議論，我們都要留下這只狗。

[5]一夜之間，尼克松從不靠譜的政客變成了可憐蟲，為了保住孩子們寵物狗，與那群冷酷無情的精英們抗爭（其實沒人要求他必須把狗還回去，但這已經不重要了）。

[6]尼克松的對手們覺得這次演講顯然是在邀買人心；但珀爾斯坦說，新興的中產階級在尼克松身上看到了自己的影子，原來尼克松和自己一樣，還貸艱難，為了家庭穩定而不言棄，這是最具人情味的東西。

[7]后來，尼克松成了美國歷史上的頭號無賴總統。連霍默·辛普森都跟他兒子說，小棋盤和希特勒的狗一樣，都生活在“狗間地獄”。

[8]然而，為博取政治資本而讓愛犬扮演受氣包的角色，卻不是尼克松開的先河。1944年，處在神壇上的富蘭克林·德拉諾·羅斯福在大選時遭到指控，說他把自己的蘇格蘭犭更犬法拉落在阿留申群島后，竟花巨資派遣驅逐艦把它接回。羅斯福無情地回擊了對手共和黨人，說自己不在乎這些人身攻擊，但法拉“自此可出名了”。

[9]不少人相信，寵物狗有助于政客的職業發展。政治學雜志PS上曾發表過一份半真半假的研究報告，提出了“用狗聲東擊西”的理論。文章作者發現，美國總統常在戰時或曝出丑聞時拿愛犬來做擋箭牌，卻很少在經濟危機時提到它們，因為公眾不愿看到總統在這樣的時刻還和嬌生慣養的寵物嬉戲。

[10]與狗相比，貓更使人難以抗拒，可在白宮卻很少見到貓的身影。即使有，也很少出鏡。唯一的特例就是比爾·克林頓的貓“短襪”。當時克林頓大膽提出了三角策略，為此在白宮同時養了貓和狗，但效果不好，貓在華盛頓的地位仍然不

尼克松與小棋盤高，無法與狗相提并論。

[11]政治家可能覺得狗是更穩妥的選擇，因為狗代表我們和家人之間的忠誠和相互依賴。奧巴馬選舉獲勝當晚，在公眾面前向兩個女兒許諾送她們一只狗，于是就有了奧巴馬家養的第一條狗——波。據記者丹·巴爾茲描述，奧巴馬盡管在就任之初困難重重，但仍受到民眾的喜愛，原因之一便是他有著幸福的家庭。選他的人“記得只要他在華盛頓，每晚都會回到白宮的家里和妻子孩子共進晚餐”。波本身就很可愛，但更重要的是，它讓人們想起奧巴馬團結相愛的家庭。

[12]貓不一樣。馴養貓的大量研究得出以下結論：“我們認為，事實是，貓可能是自我馴化的。”可能是。眾所周知，貓不會像狗一樣按主人的指示出色地完成任務，但能用高超的手段控制人，從而得到自己想要的東西。這一點愛貓的人肯定深有體會。這也是作為總統應具備的重要素質，不過沒有總統想讓民眾知道這一點。 □

（譯者單位：北京師范大學）