辯論失利令其信心受挫 新書披露奧巴馬質疑時刻

After President Obama’s mediocre first debate performance against Mitt Romney in 2012, he reportedly told advisors “I just don’t know if I can do this,” when they urged him to turn around his re-election campaign.

In “ Double Down,” journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann say that Obama followed up his presidential debate by conducting a “dismal” mock debate with then-Sen. John Kerry .

“If we don’t fix this, we could lose the whole f*ing election,” Obama advisor David Plouffe reportedly said following the mock debate.

Obama’s advisors attempted to shift his tone and approach in advance of the second presidential debate, leading Obama to respond, “I can’t tell you that ‘Okay, I woke up today, I knew I needed to do better, and I’ll do better.’ I am wired in a different way than this event requires. … I just don’t know if I can do this.”

For her part, Michelle Obama reportedly did not suffer from the same reservations as her husband, telling a group of female Obama campaign donation bundlers that the president had only lost the first debate because “Romney is a really good liar.”

It was the second such detail revealed from “Double Down” in recent days. On Thursday, an excerpt from the book revealed that Obama advisors explored the possibility of replacing Joe Biden on the vice presidential ticket with Hillary Clinton .

And while that excerpt also detailed the continually strained relationship between Obama and Bill Clinton, Saturday’s excerpt details how the former president was brought in to help Obama prepare for his second debate with Romney.

At a fundraising debate four days after the first debate, Bill Clinton reportedly told Obama, “Don’t try to make up the ground you lost … Just be yourself.”

Specifically, Clinton warned Obama to not try to compensate for his seemingly detached first debate performance by becoming too aggressive in the re-match.

Plouffee then tried to put the challenge in perspective for Obama.

“You’ve got basically 75 to 80 minutes left of doing this in your entire life. That’s less than the length of a movie!” Plouffe said. “I know it’s unnatural. But that’s all. That’s the finish line, you know?”“他搞砸了首場電視辯論。現在，第二場辯論乃至競選連任都處於失敗的邊緣。”當地時間11月2日，美國記者馬克•霍爾柏林與約翰•海勒曼所著新書《加倍》的最新節選內容曝光，講述美國總統奧巴馬如何在2012年總統大選中暗下苦功以“反敗爲勝”。

2012年10月3日晚，美國總統、民主黨候選人奧巴馬和共和黨候選人羅姆尼進行首場電視辯論。當晚，一向能言善辯的奧巴馬似乎不在狀態，答問時多次結巴、講話時連番停頓，而羅姆尼則表現得從容大方，雖然言辭咄咄逼人但不失優雅自信。結果可想而知，奧巴馬完敗。

依據《加倍》書中的描述，首場電視辯論失利後，奧巴馬錶現得非常沮喪、似乎提不起精神來扭轉敗局。所幸，奧巴馬擁有一個強大的團隊，並最終幫助他渡過難關。

10月14日，距離第二場電視辯論僅有48小時。奧巴馬在弗吉尼亞州威廉斯堡的一處度假村裏與當時還是馬薩諸塞州參議員的約翰•克里展開言語廝殺。模擬辯論時，克里扮演奧巴馬的對手羅姆尼，不斷拋出一個又一個尖銳的問題，而奧巴馬則進行回擊，並時不時停下來、接受專家對其用詞、肢體語言、面部表情等方面的指正。

奧巴馬的顧問試圖引導他改變說話的語氣，讓他表現得更加自信。然而，奧巴馬似乎還未從此前的失敗中恢復過來，“我也想要告訴大家‘我知道我必須做得更好，我能做得更好。’但是，我說不出口……我不知道我是否能夠做得到。”

相較於奧巴馬，“第一夫人”米歇爾表現得自信得多。《加倍》一書中寫道，米歇爾在競選活動上公開表示，她的丈夫首輪失利是因爲“羅姆尼太擅長撒謊了”。

“如果我們解決不了這個問題，我們將失掉整場選舉！”奧巴馬的顧問戴維•普洛非勉勵奧巴馬，“從根本上說，一生中你只有75至80分鐘的時間來做這件事情，這比看一部電影的時間還要短暫。你要明白，這就是終點線！”

事實證明，奧巴馬及其團隊的努力獲得了回報。16日晚舉行的第二場電視辯論中，奧巴馬一改之前的低迷狀態，屢屢主動出擊，力壓勁敵。

這是近日來《加倍》節選內容的第二次曝光。上週四，媒體披露的首段節選內容稱，2012年總統大選時，奧巴馬團隊曾考慮用希拉里•克林頓取代副總統拜登擔任奧巴馬的競選搭檔，並詳細描述了奧巴馬和希拉里的丈夫比爾•克林頓間時而緊張、時而緩和的關係。

此外，《加倍》一書中還提到，首場電視辯論結束後，克林頓在一個籌款活動上碰到了奧巴馬，他善意地提醒奧巴馬稱：“不要試圖彌補已經失去的，做你自己就好。”