Crawford Cowboy：All Hat and No Cattle

美国同事每谈国事，必涉及其现任总统。投过他票的恨铁不成钢，没投他票的常连挖苦带讽刺，或摇头摆手，说是NO COMMENTS。对于克林顿总统，他们往往各执一词，而现在，却站到了一边。最近写EMAIL向一位美国新闻界朋友索要他发表在报端的文章来读，没想到他的兴奋点也在这位总统身上，其言辞令人捧腹：

I wrote dozens of editorials, all against the imitation hero I call the "Crawford Cowboy," Crawford because that really is a suburb of Waco where the "great" man has a so-called ranch--1,500 acres without a single cow on the place. But when there he struts around in a pair of cowboy boots and a great big cowboy hat. His neighbor, a friend of mine who is a real cattle rancher refers to Bush as "All Hat and No Cattle."

接着他将总统先生的政治形象，连同他的人品，抨击得一无是处:

My topics in the editorials all referred to the same themes: Bush is a liar (weapons of mass destruction in Iraq of which there were none); Bush is a warrior (he was a member of the Texas Air National Guard who loved to strut in front of giggling college girls in his air force officer's uniform and he enjoyed flying the unit's F-18 fighter planes but he feared trying to land the plane. someone else had to do that); During the Viet Nam War when his Air National Guard unit went to Viet Nam, one person was missing: George W. Bush who deserted his unit and ran to Washington to hide behind the back of his father, the Vice President; he pretends to be very religious and that God tells him what to do (he devoted 20 years to hard liquor and cocain, impregnated a young girl and then paid for an illegal (in Texas) abortion. As a result of his heavy use of cocain and hard liquor, he is brain damaged and unable to think clearly. His vice president—another thug in gentleman's clothing does his "thinking" for him.

一国之尊居然可以这样拿来在媒体上残酷无情地口诛笔伐？！ 抱着同情总统先生的心情上网搜索，希望找到些赞扬他的文章。一篇总统大人热情洋溢的新年贺辞，给美国人民带来了好消息：

Christmas is fast approaching, and I know many of you are busy trying to finish up your holiday shopping. This week, we received good news about the economy that should brighten the season and keep us optimistic about the year ahead. （全文请点击：(http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/12/20061216.html)

乐观的经济形势似乎并不能帮助总统大人摆脱困境，正如另一篇文章所说：

….  whatever efforts he makes can not hold his presidency back from heading for colossal historic disgrace…. “there seems to be little the administration can do to avoid being ranked on the lowest tier of U. S. presidents.” (全文请点击：http://www.rollingstone.com/news/profile/story/9961300/the_worst_president_in_history)

文章中，有三位美国总统被认为是创造了伟大（presidents that have emerged as supreme successes）：George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt，因为

These were the men who guided the nation through what historians consider its greatest crises: the founding era after the ratification of the Constitution, the Civil War, and the Great Depression and Second World War. Presented with arduous, at times seemingly impossible circumstances, they rallied the nation, governed brilliantly and left the republic more secure than when they entered office

四位总统被认为带来了灾难（Calamitous presidents）：Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Hoover and Bush，因为他们

have divided the nation, governed erratically and left the nation worse off. In each case, different factors contributed to the failure: disastrous domestic policies, foreign-policy blunders and military setbacks, executive misconduct, crises of credibility and public trust. Bush, however, is one of the rarities in presidential history: He has not only stumbled badly in every one of these key areas, he has also displayed a weakness common among the greatest presidential failures -- an unswerving adherence to a simplistic ideology that abjures deviation from dogma as heresy, thus preventing any pragmatic adjustment to changing realities. Repeatedly, Bush has undone himself, a failing revealed in each major area of presidential performance.

当一国之首使国家遭受灾难时，便无法逃脱被辱骂和鞭笞的命运。因此，难以找到赞扬现任美国总统的文章也不足为奇了。

收起我的同情心吧。