总统与宠物

译/刘晗 审订/张政

总统与宠物

译/刘晗 审订/张政

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（竞选副总统的）竞选搭档。艾森豪威尔竞选总统，尼克松作为他的搭档竞选副总统。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民粹主义，或平民主义，以维护平民的利益为由反对权威，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曾有抗议者手举意指尼克松夫人的标语“尼克松（夫人）没有貂皮大衣——只有冷冰冰的现金（No Mink Coats for Nixon—Just Cold Cash）”，这一举动激怒了尼克松，于是他对此做出回应。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这段话节选自尼克松的演讲。尼克松曾提起自己的两个女儿渴望有条狗，得克萨斯州旅行商卢·卡罗尔知道后就给她们邮寄了一只刚出生的可卡犬。

[5] Overnight， Nixon went from being a shady politician to a downtrodden6downtrodden受压迫的。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动画片《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转移注意力的。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因该猫背部毛色漆黑，四个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，正值总统大选到来之际，共和党总统候选人德怀特·艾森豪威尔却冲着他的竞选搭档尼克松大发雷霆。尼克松收入平平，经济不能自给，被指控收受非法竞选捐款。里克·珀尔斯坦在《尼克松国度》中这样描述：艾森豪威尔想让尼克松在电视上发表演说，退出竞选，以免拖累自己。

[3]谁知尼克松却在电视上表演了一场精彩的民粹主义大戏。他把自己包装成可怜巴巴的受害者，认为自己就是如此，说自己负债累累，甚至还欠了父母的钱。尼克松还指出，妻子根本没有貂皮大衣，不过他确实收过一个礼物，而且不打算退还。

[4]是装在木箱里的一只小可卡狗，赠送人千里迢迢从得克萨斯邮寄过来。小狗全身黑白斑点，我们6岁的小女儿特里西娅就给它取名叫“小棋盘”。你们知道，孩子们都很喜欢它。所以现在我要说清楚，不管他们怎么议论，我们都要留下这只狗。

[5]一夜之间，尼克松从不靠谱的政客变成了可怜虫，为了保住孩子们宠物狗，与那群冷酷无情的精英们抗争（其实没人要求他必须把狗还回去，但这已经不重要了）。

[6]尼克松的对手们觉得这次演讲显然是在邀买人心；但珀尔斯坦说，新兴的中产阶级在尼克松身上看到了自己的影子，原来尼克松和自己一样，还贷艰难，为了家庭稳定而不言弃，这是最具人情味的东西。

[7]后来，尼克松成了美国历史上的头号无赖总统。连霍默·辛普森都跟他儿子说，小棋盘和希特勒的狗一样，都生活在“狗间地狱”。

[8]然而，为博取政治资本而让爱犬扮演受气包的角色，却不是尼克松开的先河。1944年，处在神坛上的富兰克林·德拉诺·罗斯福在大选时遭到指控，说他把自己的苏格兰犭更犬法拉落在阿留申群岛后，竟花巨资派遣驱逐舰把它接回。罗斯福无情地回击了对手共和党人，说自己不在乎这些人身攻击，但法拉“自此可出名了”。

[9]不少人相信，宠物狗有助于政客的职业发展。政治学杂志PS上曾发表过一份半真半假的研究报告，提出了“用狗声东击西”的理论。文章作者发现，美国总统常在战时或曝出丑闻时拿爱犬来做挡箭牌，却很少在经济危机时提到它们，因为公众不愿看到总统在这样的时刻还和娇生惯养的宠物嬉戏。

[10]与狗相比，猫更使人难以抗拒，可在白宫却很少见到猫的身影。即使有，也很少出镜。唯一的特例就是比尔·克林顿的猫“短袜”。当时克林顿大胆提出了三角策略，为此在白宫同时养了猫和狗，但效果不好，猫在华盛顿的地位仍然不

尼克松与小棋盘高，无法与狗相提并论。

[11]政治家可能觉得狗是更稳妥的选择，因为狗代表我们和家人之间的忠诚和相互依赖。奥巴马选举获胜当晚，在公众面前向两个女儿许诺送她们一只狗，于是就有了奥巴马家养的第一条狗——波。据记者丹·巴尔兹描述，奥巴马尽管在就任之初困难重重，但仍受到民众的喜爱，原因之一便是他有着幸福的家庭。选他的人“记得只要他在华盛顿，每晚都会回到白宫的家里和妻子孩子共进晚餐”。波本身就很可爱，但更重要的是，它让人们想起奥巴马团结相爱的家庭。

[12]猫不一样。驯养猫的大量研究得出以下结论：“我们认为，事实是，猫可能是自我驯化的。”可能是。众所周知，猫不会像狗一样按主人的指示出色地完成任务，但能用高超的手段控制人，从而得到自己想要的东西。这一点爱猫的人肯定深有体会。这也是作为总统应具备的重要素质，不过没有总统想让民众知道这一点。 □

（译者单位：北京师范大学）