克林頓2012年提名奧巴馬演講

克林頓2012年提名奧巴馬演講 英文版

September 5, 2012

We’re here to nominate a President, and I’ve got one in mind.

I want to nominate a man whose own life has known its fair share of adversity and uncertainty. A man who ran for President to change the course of an already weak economy and then just six weeks before the election, saw it suffer the biggest collapse since the Great Depression. A man who stopped the slide into depression and put us on the long road to recovery, knowing all the while that no matter how many jobs were created and saved, there were still millions more waiting, trying to feed their children and keep their hopes alive.

I want to nominate a man cool on the outside but burning for America on the inside. A man who believes we can build a new American Dream economy driven by innovation and creativity, education and cooperation. A man who had the good sense to marry Michelle Obama.

I want Barack Obama to be the next President of the United States and I proudly nominate him as the standard bearer of the Democratic Party.

In Tampa, we heard a lot of talk about how the President and the Democrats don’t believe in free enterprise and individual initiative, how we want everyone to be dependent on the government, how bad we are for the economy.

The Republican narrative is that all of us who amount to anything are completely self-made. One of our greatest Democratic Chairmen, Bob Strauss, used to say that every politician wants you to believe he was born in a log cabin he built himself, but it ain't so.

We Democrats think the country works better with a strong middle class, real opportunities for poor people to work their way into it and a relentless focus on the future, with business and government working together to promote growth and broadly shared prosperity. We think “we’re all in this together” is a better philosophy than “you’re on your own.”

Who’s right? Well since 1961, the Republicans have held the White House 28 years, the Democrats 24. In those 52 years, our economy produced 66 million private sector jobs. What’s the jobs score? Republicans 24 million, Democrats 42 million!

It turns out that advancing equal opportunity and economic empowerment is both morally right and good economics, because discrimination, poverty and ignorance restrict growth, while investments in education, infrastructure and scientific and technological research increase it, creating more good jobs and new wealth for all of us.

Though I often disagree with Republicans, I never learned to hate them the way the far right that now controls their party seems to hate President Obama and the Democrats. After all, President Eisenhower sent federal troops to my home state to integrate Little Rock Central High and built the interstate highway system. And as governor, I worked with President Reagan on welfare reform and with President George H.W. Bush on national education goals. I am grateful to President George W. Bush for PEPFAR, which is saving the lives of millions of people in poor countries and to both Presidents Bush for the work we’ve done together after the South Asia tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and the Haitian earthquake.

Through my foundation, in America and around the world, I work with Democrats, Republicans and Independents who are focused on solving problems and seizing opportunities, not fighting each other.

When times are tough, constant conflict may be good politics but in the real world, cooperation works better. After all, nobody’s right all the time, and a broken clock is right twice a day. All of us are destined to live our lives between those two extremes. Unfortunately, the faction that now dominates the Republican Party doesn’t see it that way. They think government is the enemy, and compromise is weakness.

One of the main reasons America should re-elect President Obama is that he is still committed to cooperation. He appointed Republican Secretaries of Defense, the Army and Transportation. He appointed a Vice President who ran against him in 2008, and trusted him to oversee the successful end of the war in Iraq and the implementation of the recovery act. And Joe Biden did a great job with both. He appointed Cabinet members who supported Hillary in the primaries. Heck, he even appointed Hillary! I’m so proud of her and grateful to our entire national security team for all they’ve done to make us safer and stronger and to build a world with more partners and fewer enemies. I’m also grateful to the young men and women who serve our country in the military and to Michelle Obama and Jill Biden for supporting military families when their loved ones are overseas and for helping our veterans, when they come home bearing the wounds of war, or needing help with education, housing, and jobs.

President Obama’s record on national security is a tribute to his strength, and judgment, and to his preference for inclusion and partnership over partisanship. He also tried to work with Congressional Republicans on Health Care, debt reduction, and jobs, but that didn’t work out so well. Probably because, as the Senate Republican leader, in a remarkable moment of candor, said two years before the election, their number one priority was not to put America back to work, but to put President Obama out of work.

Senator, I hate to break it to you, but we’re going to keep President Obama on the job!

In Tampa, the Republican argument against the President’s re-election was pretty simple: we left him a total mess, he hasn’t cleaned it up fast enough, so fire him and put us back in.

In order to look like an acceptable alternative to President Obama, they couldn’t say much about the ideas they have offered over the last two years. You see they want to go back to the same old policies that got us into trouble in the first place: to cut taxes for high income Americans even more than President Bush did; to get rid of those pesky financial regulations designed to prevent another crash and prohibit future bailouts; to increase defense spending two trillion dollars more than the Pentagon has requested without saying what they’ll spend the money on; to make enormous cuts in the rest of the budget, especially programs that help the middle class and poor kids. As another President once said – there they go again.

I like the argument for President Obama’s re-election a lot better. He inherited a deeply damaged economy, put a floor under the crash, began the long hard road to recovery, and laid the foundation for a modern, more well-balanced economy that will produce millions of good new jobs, vibrant new businesses, and lots of new wealth for the innovators.

Are we where we want to be? No. Is the President satisfied? No. Are we better off than we were when he took office, with an economy in free fall, losing 750,000 jobs a month? The answer is YES.

I understand the challenge we face. I know many Americans are still angry and frustrated with the economy. Though employment is growing, banks are beginning to lend and even housing prices are picking up a bit, too many people don’t feel it.

I experienced the same thing in 1994 and early 1995. Our policies were working and the economy was growing but most people didn’t feel it yet. By 1996, the economy was roaring, halfway through the longest peacetime expansion in American history.

President Obama started with a much weaker economy than I did. No President-not me or any of my predecessors could have repaired all the damage in just four years. But conditions are improving and if you’ll renew the President’s contract you will feel it.

I believe that with all my heart. President Obama’s approach embodies the values, the ideas, and the direction America must take to build a 21st century version of the American Dream in a nation of shared opportunities, shared prosperity and shared responsibilities.

克林頓2012年提名奧巴馬演講 中文版

2012年9月5日

我們在這里提名總統(tǒng)候選人，我心里已經有一個人選了。

我將要提名的這個人，他已經知道了自己命運多舛。他競選總統(tǒng)以解決選舉前六個月以來最大的經濟危機，他正在努力解決經濟蕭條所帶來的低迷經濟，阻止經濟繼續(xù)下滑。他也正在帶領著我們踏上了經濟復蘇的道路。他知道不管已經創(chuàng)造了多少工作機會，仍然會有數(shù)以百萬的人在等待工作機會，盡自己的能力來撫養(yǎng)他們的孩子，使自己的生活充滿希望。

我將要提名的總統(tǒng)候選人外冷內熱，他相信我們能用我們的智慧創(chuàng)造力教育和合作建立新的“美國夢”經濟，這個男人很幸運地娶到了米歇爾。

我將提名貝拉克·奧巴馬為下屆總統(tǒng)候選人，我將提名他為美國民主黨的標桿。

在坦帕我們聽到不少關于奧巴馬和民主黨不信任自由企業(yè)和個人主義的言論，還有我們希望每一個人都依靠政府的力量，還說我們不了解我們現(xiàn)在的經濟情況是多么糟糕。

共和黨把我們所有的人描述成完全是為自己。一位民主黨主席鮑勃·斯特勞斯總是說每一個政體都想要你相信他出生在自制的小木屋里，但事實不是這樣的。

我們民主黨認為一個國家的中產階級強大了，這個國家才能強大。給他們提供實質的工作機會讓他們能自力更生，讓他們參與國家的發(fā)展，商業(yè)和政府的工作結合起來去讓國家發(fā)展繁榮。“我們一直在一起”的口號比“你可以依靠自己”聽起來舒服多了。

誰是對的呢?從1961年開始，共和黨執(zhí)政了28年，民主黨執(zhí)政24年，在這52年中，在經濟發(fā)展基礎上創(chuàng)造了6600萬個工作機會，這些工作在兩黨之間是怎樣分配的呢?共和黨是240萬，民主黨是420萬。

這表明促進經濟機會和能力的增長在平等權力和經濟上起到了平衡的作用，因為種族歧視，貧窮無知限制了經濟的發(fā)展，而在教育，基礎設施建設，科學研究上的投資在增長，這樣就能創(chuàng)造更多好的工作和更多的財富。

雖然我經常不贊同共和黨的政策，但是我從沒有像他們現(xiàn)在討厭奧巴馬總統(tǒng)和民主黨那樣討厭他們，畢竟艾森豪威爾總統(tǒng)曾經派遣軍隊去我的家鄉(xiāng)整合小鹽城并且在那里建立了高速公路網。作為州長我也曾同里根總統(tǒng)在福利改革政策上共同努力，也和喬治·布什總統(tǒng)一起工作完成國家教育目標。我對喬治·布什總統(tǒng)充滿了感激，因為他為艾滋病緊急救援計劃做出了很大的努力，這次行動挽救了貧困地區(qū)數(shù)以百萬的生命。我也很感激兩屆布什總統(tǒng)和我一道在南亞海嘯，卡特里娜颶風和海底地震后的努力工作。

從我的角度出發(fā)，我在美國甚至世界各地，我和民主黨，共和黨，還有自由黨派一起努力工作是為了解決問題，抓住機會，而不是互相攻擊。

在艱難的時代里，持續(xù)的紛爭可能是好的政治手段，但在當今世界合作會更好。我們每一個人注定要生活在這兩個極端之間。但很不幸現(xiàn)在掌控共和黨的小部分人卻不這樣想，他們認為政府就是敵人，妥協(xié)就是軟弱。

美國應該繼續(xù)選奧巴馬當選總統(tǒng)的一個很重要原因就是他始終致力于以“合作”為執(zhí)政原則。他任命共和黨的國防部長，還有軍隊和運輸上的一些官員。他任命在2008年與他競選的副總統(tǒng)，并信任他監(jiān)督伊拉克戰(zhàn)爭的勝利結束和復蘇法案的執(zhí)行。于此同時，喬·拜登在這方面也做得很好，他任命在總統(tǒng)預選時支持希拉里的內閣成員，而且他居然能重用希拉里，我為她感到驕傲。我也很感激我們整個國家安全局，為把我們的國家建立得更安全更強大，多一些伙伴少一些敵人所做出的努力。我也很感謝在軍隊服役的年輕人，更感謝米歇爾·奧巴馬和吉爾·拜登在軍人們遠赴他鄉(xiāng)時他們對軍人家屬的鼓勵支持，而且他們還從教育、居住和就業(yè)方面幫助受傷歸來的老兵。

奧巴馬總統(tǒng)在國家安全上貼的標簽是他的力量、公正，還有他對于黨派的包容和愛護。他也一直在為國家衛(wèi)生保健，債務削減和就業(yè)機會努力，但是他沒有解決得那么好。坦率的講，也許是因為共和黨參議員領導在兩年前表示，他們的首要任務不是為國民創(chuàng)造更多工作機會，而是讓奧巴馬下臺。

參議員，我本來不想這樣說，但是我們正努力讓奧巴馬繼續(xù)執(zhí)政。

在坦帕，共和黨有關奧巴馬連任的論調非常簡單：我們留給他一個爛攤子，但他動作不夠快沒有清理干凈，所以請大家炒了他，換我們重新上臺。

為了能更像奧巴馬的競爭對手，他們不能對過去兩年間他們提供的想法做過多評論。你們很清楚他們將用同樣的舊政策把我們帶入麻煩：為高收入美國人減稅，人數(shù)多于當初布什執(zhí)政時減稅的人數(shù);廢除討厭的金融條款阻止破產，但也阻止了將來的救助;增加兩萬億的國防支出，這比美國國防部要求的還多，而且他們沒有說把這些錢用在哪里;減少大量的支出預算，特別是在幫助中產階級和貧困孩子的項目上。正如另外一位總統(tǒng)所說，在那里他們又可以做主了。

我其實更喜歡總統(tǒng)奧巴馬連任的論調。他接手了一個嚴重受損的經濟，開始了漫長的恢復之路，并為籌劃更現(xiàn)代化、更平衡的經濟奠定了基礎。這是創(chuàng)造數(shù)百萬良好得就業(yè)機會、充滿活力的企業(yè)及為企業(yè)帶來新財富的前提。

我們實現(xiàn)自己的目標了嗎?沒有!總統(tǒng)覺得滿意嗎?不滿意!他執(zhí)政之前，經濟呈自由落體式的下滑，平均每個月減少75萬各工作機會嗎?答案是肯定的。

我明白我們現(xiàn)在面臨的挑戰(zhàn)，我也知道很多美國人都對美國現(xiàn)在的經濟感到氣憤和沮喪。雖然就業(yè)率正在增長，銀行也正在發(fā)放外貸，甚至房價也上漲了一點，但是太多的人還沒有感受到。

我在1994年和1995年早期經歷了同樣的事。我們的政策正在起效，經濟也正在恢復，只是大部分人都沒有感受到而已。到1996年，經濟開始繁榮，也基本到了美國歷史上經濟最穩(wěn)定的發(fā)展時期。

奧巴馬現(xiàn)在著手的經濟問題比我當年要弱很多，沒有一位總統(tǒng)，包括我和所有前任總統(tǒng)能夠在短短四年時間就修復所有的經濟問題。但是情況正在改善，如果你們再給奧巴馬四年，你們就會感受得到。

我相信這也是來自我們心底的聲音。奧巴馬總統(tǒng)的做法體現(xiàn)了美國的價值觀思想和發(fā)展方向。奧巴馬總統(tǒng)正在努力把美國建立成擁有21世紀美國夢的新國家。在這里全民有同樣的機會，共享繁榮，一起承擔責任。