读The Economist(3) by MVT

MVTUID: 2588209

第3篇分析2009年4月4日
The American presidency
Learning the hard way
Mar 26th 2009 From The Economist print edition
Barack Obama may at last be getting a grip. But he still needs to show more leadership, at home and abroad
1、作者的写作思路主线（我的评论）
2、文章中应用的写作技巧（我的评论）
3、作者逻辑思维漏洞（我的评论）
4、标出文中的GRE级别词汇（红色）
5、标出文章中的自己认为的好词好句（蓝色）
6、文章对你写作灵感的激发(我的评论)
7、适应于AW中的例子或者思路（栗色加粗）

HILLARY CLINTON’S most effective quip(=joke,jape,jest), in her long struggle with Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination last year, was that the Oval Office is no place for on-the-job training. It went to the heart of the nagging worry about the silver-tongued young senator from Illinois: that he lacked even the slightest executive experience, and that in his brief career he had never really stood up to powerful interests, whether in his home city of Chicago or in the wider world. Might Mrs Clinton have been right about her foe? (通过Hillary的quip引入Obama:缺乏执政经验、从未抵抗强权。最后作者对此产生疑问)

Not altogether(给出否定答复). In foreign policy in particular Mr Obama has already done some commendable things. He has held out a sincere hand to Iran; he has ordered Guantánamo closed within a year; he has set himself firmly against torture. He has, as the world and this newspaper wanted, taken a less strident tone in dealing with friends and rivals alike. (提出Obama几件值得表扬的决定)

But at home Mr Obama has had a difficult start. His performance has been weaker than those who endorsed his candidacy, including this newspaper, had hoped. Many of his strongest supporters—liberal columnists, prominent donors, Democratic Party stalwarts—have started to question him. As for those not so beholden, polls show that independent voters again prefer Republicans to Democrats, a startling reversal of fortune in just a few weeks. Mr Obama’s once-celestial approval ratings are about where George Bush’s were at this stage in his awful presidency. Despite his resounding electoral victory, his solid majorities in both chambers of Congress and the obvious goodwill of the bulk of the electorate, Mr Obama has seemed curiously feeble. (又转折，Obama的开端不利:表现不如媒体那样夸张、支持者质疑、民意倾向共和党等等)

Empty posts, weak policies
There are two main reasons for this. The first is Mr Obama’s failure to grapple as fast and as single-mindedly with the economy as he should have done. His stimulus package, though huge, was subcontracted to Congress, which did a mediocre job: too much of the money will arrive too late to be of help in the current crisis. His budget, though in some ways more honest than his predecessor’s, is wildly optimistic. And he has taken too long to produce his plan for dealing with the trillions of dollars of toxic assets which fester on banks’ balance-sheets. (政策疲软的第一个原因:与经济格斗不及时、红包没起到作用、预算过分乐观、处理银行资产负债表动作迟缓)

The failure to staff the Treasury is a shocking illustration of administrative drift. There are 23 slots at the department that need confirmation by the Senate, and only two have been filled. This is not the Senate’s fault. Mr Obama has made a series of bad picks of people who have chosen or been forced to withdraw; and it was only this week that he announced his candidates for two of the department’s four most senior posts. Filling such jobs is always a tortuous business in America, but Mr Obama has made it harder by insisting on a level of scrutiny far beyond anything previously attempted. Getting the Treasury team in place ought to have been his first priority.(上段主要讲述经济政策的迟缓，本段讲述用人的迟缓:没有让财政部迅速就位运行，职位空缺)

Second, Mr Obama has mishandled his relations with both sides in Congress. Though he campaigned as a centrist and promised an era of post-partisan government, that’s not how he has behaved. His stimulus bill attracted only three Republican votes in the Senate and none in the House. This bodes ill for the passage of more difficult projects, such as his big plans for carbon-emissions control and health-care reform. Keeping those promises will soon start to bedevil the administration. The Republicans must take their share of the blame for the breakdown. But if Mr Obama had done a better job of selling his package, and had worked harder at making sure that Republicans were included in drafting it, they would have found it more difficult to oppose his plans.(另外一个原因:没有处理好自己本人和国会2党之间的关系。本段说没处理好与共和党的关系)

If Mr Obama cannot work with the Republicans, he needs to be certain that he controls his own party. Unfortunately, he seems unable to. Put bluntly, the Democrats are messing him around(to waste time). They are pushing pro-trade-union legislation (notably a measure to get rid of secret ballots) even though he doesn’t want them to do so; they have been roughing up the bankers even though it makes his task of fixing the economy much harder; they have stuffed his stimulus package and his appropriations bill with pork, even though this damages him and his party in the eyes of the electorate. Worst of all, he is letting them get away with it. (本段说他没有控制好民主党，很放任)

Lead, dammit
There are some signs that Mr Obama’s administration is learning. This week the battered treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, has at last come up with a detailed plan to rescue the banks (see article and article). Its success is far from guaranteed, and the mood of Congress and the public has soured to the point where, should this plan fail, getting another one off the drawing-board will be exceedingly hard. But the plan at least demonstrates the administration’s acceptance that it must work with the bankers, instead of riding the wave of popular opinion against them, if it is to repair America’s economy. And it’s not just in the domestic arena that Mr Obama has demonstrated his willingness to learn: on Iraq, he has intelligently recalibrated his views, coming up with a plan for withdrawal that seeks to consolidate the gains in Iraq while limiting the costs to America.(作者态度转变:承认现任政府正在努力学习改进美国状况--Tim's plan, Obama's recalibrated views on Iraq)

But Mr Obama has a long way to travel if he is to serve his country—and the world—as he should. Take the G20 meeting in London, to which he will head at the end of next week. The most important task for this would-be institution is to set itself firmly against protectionism at a time when most of its members are engaged in a game of creeping beggar-thy-neighbour. Yet how can Mr Obama lead the fight when he has just pandered to America’s unions by sparking a minor trade war with Mexico? And how can he set a new course for NATO at its 60th-anniversary summit a few days later if he is appeasing his party with talk of leaving Afghanistan? (服务美国乃至世界的路途遥远:如何避免贸易壁垒、如何主导G20、如何为NATO设置新的路线等)

In an accomplished press conference this week, Mr Obama reminded the world what an impressive politician he can be. He has a capacity to inspire that is unmatched abroad or at home. He holds a strong hand when it comes to the Democrats, many of whom owe their seats to his popularity at last year’s election. Now he must play it.(最后提出obama应该展现自己的能力，要解决民主党问题。该是采取行动兑现诺言的时候了。)
文章写作思路：
通过Hillary的评价对Obama政府进行怀疑→小让步，承认O有积极举措→但是没有达到民众要求→职位空缺、政策疲软（财政不及时+人员任职不及时+与共和党关系不好+没控制好民主党）→能否领导世界（虽然积极学习+但是很难主导世界）→结论：现任政府意愿强烈，但是困难重重，该采取措施兑现诺言。

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HardCandy1UID: 3439237

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bingfeng1203UID: 3495202

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