Reporter： Mr. President, welcome.
记者：总统先生，欢迎。
Clinton: Thank you，Jim.
克林顿：谢谢，吉姆。
Reporter: First, on the news, do you approve of John Kerry’s selection of John Edwards as a running male?
记者：首先，新闻报导说约翰凯利选了 约翰爱德华作为他的竞选伙伴，对于 此事你赞同吗？
Clinton: Absolutely I do. I think it’s a good choice. I think he brings energy, vitality. He was on the Intelligence Committee, which is going to be a very important issue for the next several years as we continue to deal with terror and other problems, with weapons of mass destruction. He's come from a different culture. He speaks in a slightly different way. He'll immediately add some credibility like my home state in Arkansas. And I think they've got a lot in common, and the voters voted for both of them. They both took the chance and ran this year. So I think it will be good. And the most important thing is it was obvious to me that by the time John Kerry made the decision, he was comfortable with it. And my advice here almost seems naive I think to a lot of experts, but my counsel was always pick someone you’re going to proud of every day after you do it, because when you’re the challenger, the only presidential decision you get to make is your nominee. And if you like it, if you think this person couldbe a good President, I would like to work with this person or give this person a lot of responsibilities, it shows in your body language and just the cast of your head and the way you look and think and act for the whole rest of the campaign. So I got that out of John Kerry yesterday. I feel good about it.
克林顿：我完全赞同。我认为这个选择 很好。我认为爱德华带来了活力和生 机。他之前在情报委员会任职，这对我 们在接下来的几年里继续应对恐怖行为 和其他如大规模杀伤性武器的问题是很 重要的。他的文化背景和我们不同。说 话方式也略微不同。他会很快为很多地 方增加一些信誉度和吸引力，比如我的家乡阿肯瑟州。我认为他们有很多共同 点，选民会给这两个人都投票。他们都 抓住机遇参加今年的竞选。所以我认为 这很好。最重要的事情是，我明白约 翰凯利作出决定后自己对此也很满 意。我在此的建议可能对很多专家来说 看起来几近幼稚，但是每天当我赞美 了一个人后，我的顾问团总是对我想赞 美的人吹毛求疵的。因为当你是挑战者 时，你要做的唯一一个总统的决定就是 选择总统提名候选人。如果你对这个决 定满意，如果你认为这个人可能成为一 位好总统，那么就会愿意和这个人一起 工作，或者赋予他很多职责。这在你举 手投足和你在接下来的竞选中的思考， 观察和行动中都能够表现出来。我昨天 从约翰凯利身上看到了。我觉得这 很好。
Reporter: A lot of people have compared John Edwards to you. They say your styles are similar, you come from the same part of the country. Do you see a lot of similarities?
记者：很多人把约翰爱德华和你相提 并论。他们说你们的风格很像，你们来 自同一个地区。你觉得你们在很多方面 相似吗？
Clinton: Well, I think there is some. We share a common culture, and there is some similarities in our roots, but he’s very much his own person and a distinctive person, and I spent most of my life in politics before I ran for national office. He spent most of his life in the private sector, and he has had a term, and I think quite a good term as a Senator from North Carolina. But I think he's his own man. As the people get to know him, I think they’ll find him fascinating in both the similarities and the important differences.
克林顿：嗯，我认为有些相似点。我们 的文化背景相同，我们的祖 先也有相似的地方，但是他 是非常有个性，很与众不 同。我在竞选总统之前，生 活中的大部分时间都在和政 治打交道。而他大部分时间 都在私营部门工作。他在北 卡罗莱纳州当了一任议员， 我认为他做得相当不错。但是我认为他 很特别。随着人们渐渐对他有了 了解， 他们就会发现他在与我相似的方面和不 同的方面上都非常让人着迷。
Reporter: What about the-the Republicans have already made the point that he lacks foreign policy experience. This is a foreign policy election. This is a foreign policy time. How do you think that’s going to go down?
记者：那么你怎么看共和党人说他缺乏 外交经验这一点？这是外交选举，是外交时刻。你认为他支持率会下降吗？
Clinton: Well, I think there are two or three answers to that. First of all, he did serve on the Intelligence Committee, and he's intelligent, he works hard and he's learned a lot. He’s got a fast learning curve. He certainly proved that in everything he，s ever done in his life. And he，s had more relevant experience than then-Governor Bush did when he ran for President, and John Kerry— John Edwards is running for Vice President. Finally, I think that Senator Kerry has the requisite experience to do the job, and I don’t think there’s any reason to believe that John Edwards won't learn and learn in a hurry.
克林顿：嗯，我认为这个问题有两三个答 案。首先，他确实曾在情报委员会工作 过，他很聪颖，工作努力，也学到了很 多东西。他是个接受新事物快的人。他 已然在他生命中所做过的每一件事上都 证明了自己。他比布什州长在竞选总统 时有更多相关经验，而约翰凯利—— 约翰爱德华是要竞选副总统。最后， 我认为凯利议员有必不可少的经验可以 胜任这个工作，我认为没有任何理由怀 疑约翰爱德华会在短时间内学习并学 到很多东西。
Reporter: Mr. President, did anybody from the Kerry campaign, directly or indirectly, approach your wife, Senator Clinton, about being his running mate?
记者：总统先生，凯利竞选团有没有人 直接或间接地去找你的妻子希拉里议 员，让她做竞选伙伴？
Clinton: Not to my knowledge. I don’t think—because she made it clear when—
克林顿：据我所知没有。我认为不会， 因为她说得很清楚——
Reporter: You know, there was a lot of talk about that.
记者：你知道，很 多人都在议论这个。
Clinton: I know that, but, you know, she made it pretty clear when she decided not to run for president herself this year, that she felt she had been given a great gift by the people of New York, a chance to serve, and she was doing important work on the Armed Services Committee, and she wanted to continue and honor her commitment to do her full term. So，as far as I know, no one did.
克林顿：我知道这 个，但是你知道， 她之前在决定今年 不竞选总统时就说 得很清楚了，她觉 得纽约的人民给了 她很厚重的礼物， 给了她为他们服务的机会，她正在陆、 海、空三军委员会上主持着重要工作， 她想要继续遵守承诺把任期做满做好。 所以，据我所知，还没有人去找她。
Reporter: On your book, how do you feel about the reaction to it, thus far?
记者：关于你的书，你对目前大家对你 的书的反应有什么看法？
Clinton: Well, I feel—I’ve been astonished by the sales, and profoundly moved by the things that people say to me at these book signings. I love the book signings, you know, because I get to talk to real people, and a number of people have said something very specific to me. “The Family Leave Law saved my family,” or “Made our lives better,” or, “The education aid that you provided made it possible for me to go to college.” One man at 50 years of age got his college degree. People who had been on welfare, who took the welfare reform child care aid and college aid and went back to school. It’s tons of that kind of stuff, and that is very moving to me. And a lot of people said they thought that I was pulling for them, I was on their side. So it—that I think has been more personally rewarding to me even than the book sales.
克林顿：嗯，我感到——我被销量震住 了，也被签名售书会上人们对我说的话深深感动了。我喜欢签名售书，你知 道，因为我能够和人们对话，有很多人 跟我说了很实在的话。“联邦休假法挽 救了我的家庭”或“让我们的生活过 得更好”，“你提出的教育资助计划让我 有机会进入大学读书”等。一个50岁 的男人拿到了他的大学学位。曾经领取 福利的人们，领取儿童救助福利的人们 还有那些拿到教育补助重返校园的人 们。他们说了很多很友善的话，让我很 感动。很多人说，他们认为我为他们呐 喊，跟他们站在一边。所以，我认为这 比书的销量更让我觉得满足。
Reporter: Did that surprise you? Did you expect this kind of reaction from, from ordinary folks?
记者：这种反应让你惊讶吗？你预料到 会有这种来自平民的反映了吗？
Clinton: I just didn’t know. I didn’t know. And now, of course, that the book’s been out a couple of weeks, people who come through these signings have read all or part of it, so then they talk to me about stories and how—their common stories in their lives, you know, which I like that too. Other people who lived in houses without indoor plumbing, or other people who have been butted by farm animals, or other people who had funny experiences at their baptisms，and all that. That’s kind of fun. But the main thing is, the way I kept score in politics was whether people were better off when I quit than they were when I started, and when people can come up and cite specific things you did, that’s very moving.
克林顿：我当时没有想到。真没想到。 而现在，当然，书已经销售了好几周 了，来签名售书会的人们已经读了全部 或者部分内容，所以他们就给我讲故 事，讲他们生活中相同的故事，你知 道，我很喜欢这样。生活在没有室内管 道的屋子里的人们，被家畜撞上的人 们，或者在洗礼时发生了有趣故事的人 们，所有这些，真是很有意思。但是关 键是，我在政治方面计算得失的方式是 看在我离任时人们的生活是不是比我就 职时要好，当人们走过来讲一些你做过 的具体的事情时，是很让人感动的。
Reporter: Now, some of the non-ordinary folks, I guess you would call them, the book reviewers, have not been that kind to you. The LA Times said, “There are flashes of incisive brilliance and numbing stretches of tedious self-absorption” in your book.
记者现在，一些不同寻常的人，我猜 你会叫他们书评人，他们对你就不那么 友善了。《洛杉矶时报》说你的书中虽 闪耀着些微锋芒，但通篇是冗长乏味的 自我反省。
Clinton: Well, that’s what they said, and the lady from the New York Times didn’t like the book very much, but Larry McMurtry seemed to like it, and Doug Brinkley, a distinguished historian, seemed to like it, and I guess if I had to choose reviewers, I’d rather have a guy that had written great novels say it was good than, and then have somebody else say it was bad than the reverse. Toni Morrison said she thought it was pretty well written. I think she's a pretty good judge. I think it— it depends on whether you like what I wrote about, whether you’re interested in it. I mean my life was a combination of fascination with other people，with politics, and with policy，and the impact of government decisions on people’s lives and the life of our nation and the life of the world. If you’re interested in that and you really want to know more about what happened in the last 50 years, you’re probably interested in this book, and if you’re not, it’s probably not all that interesting to you. And of be self-analytical, both to outline the course I did try to mistakes I made in my life and try to explain why I did, and the things that on balance I did pretty well on. Memoirs are supposed to be somewhat self-absorbed I think.
克林顿：嗯，他们确实是这么说的， 《纽约时报》的那位女士也不怎么喜欢 这本书，但是拉里麦克默特里好像 喜欢这本书，还有一个出色的历史学家 道格布林克利好像也喜欢。我想， 如果我必须选择，我更愿意是一名曾经 写过伟大小说的人说它好，而其他人说 它不好，而不是写过伟大的小说的人说 它不好，其他人说它好。托尼莫里 森说她认为写得很好。我认为她是很好 的评判人。我认为这些都取决于你是否 喜欢我写的内容，是否对它感兴趣。我 的意思是我的生活是与其他人相联系 的，与政治、政策和政府决策对人民的 影响、对国家和世界的影响联系在一起 的。如果你对此感兴趣，你真的就会想本来就应该是有一些自我 专注的。所以，对此你没有知道更多，想知道过去这50年里发生 了什么，你可能就会对此书感兴趣。如 果不是这样，这本书对于 你来说就没什么意思。当 然我确实试图作自我剖析， 包括大致描写了我生命中 犯下的错误，试图解释我 为什么那么做，还有我平 衡的很好的事情。回忆录本来就是有一些自我专注的。
Reporter: So you don’t have any apologies about that.
记者：所以，对此你没有什么可道歉的？
Clinton： No, no. I mean I—it’s funny because McMurtry said that he wasn’t sure I was all that self-absorbed. He didn’t think-he wasn’t sure he knew me better, but he knew a lot more about his country he said when he read the book.
克林顿：没有。我觉得很有意思，因为 麦克默特里说他不确定我是否都是在只 专注自己。他说他读完这本书后，他不 认为，不确定他通过这本书对我有了更 多的了解，但是他知道了更多关于这个 国家的事情。