Obama’s ’Jedi mind trick’

It was unlike any State of the Union address that President Obama has delivered before. Instead of a laundry list of legislative goals, this speech was about defending his achievements and articulating what he wants his legacy to be.

不同于奥巴马总统以往做出的任何国情咨文，此次演讲是来捍卫他的业绩并阐明他想要的自己政治遗产的呈现，而非立法目标的清单。

That, of course, was a highly political task and there were plenty of thinly veiled attacks on his Republican opponents and Donald Trump in particular - although he was never mentioned by name. But near the end of the speech, Mr Obama also spoke about Washington’s hyperpartisan politics - and took some personal blame for the division and dysfunction it has led to.

无疑，这是一个高度的政治任务，其中有很多对共和党人和尤其是唐纳德·特朗普的露骨的攻击，尽管从奥巴马没有提及他的名字。但是，在演讲末尾，奥巴马先生也谈到了现在的华盛顿两党意见空前分歧并对此分歧造成的分裂和混乱做出了个人的指责。

"It’s one of the few regrets of my presidency - that the rancour and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better," he said. "There’s no doubt a president with the gifts of Lincoln or Roosevelt might have better bridged the divide, and I guarantee I’ll keep trying to be better so long as I hold this office."

他说到；“两党之间的敌意和怀疑更深而非有所改善，这是我任期间为数不多的遗憾之一。无疑，如果我有林肯或罗斯福一样的天才，我可能会更好地弥合分歧，但是我保证，只要我还是总统，我会一直努力去做好。”

This was the hopeful Obama of 2008, tempered by the realities of two terms in the White House. The candidate who promised to break down the barriers between red states and blue states has found it is harder to make purple than he thought. And perhaps that moment of candour was contagious. Moments after the speech ended I spoke with Republican congressman Luke Messer of Indiana. Yes, he dismissed the president’s vision of today’s US as a "great Jedi mind trick" played on the American people. But he also accepted that his party’s rhetoric often did not help lead to solutions either.

这是2008年充满希望的奥巴马，受到白宫两党分歧的现实的调和。这位总统候选人曾许诺打破两党之间的障碍，但现在发现这远比他想象的难。可能，这个公正坦白的时刻是有感染性的。在演讲结束后，我采访了共和党的国会议员，即印第安阿州的Luke Messer。他认为总统所想的今日美国的的图景只是对美国民众的“巧妙的思想控制”。但是他也承认，共和党的说辞通常也没能解决问题。

As Stu Rothenburg, joining me in the BBC’s Washington studio for post-speech analysis, put it, the admission was both rare and revealing. How long it lasts is another matter.

Stu Rothenburg加入了BBC的华盛顿工作室，和我一做演讲后的分析。他认为，这类坦白承认是既少见又有启迪作用的。但这能持续多久就是另一回事了。

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来源:BBC英语新闻爱语吧作者:Sally