Already in this pre-presidential year, the question is out and about: How judgmental will the public be of candidates, how demanding of idealized personal lives and vintage family values

在今年這個總統大選暖身年，各方都在問一個問題：民眾對候選人會如何批判，對理想的私生活和傳統的家庭價值觀會提出多嚴苛的要求？

It's old news that divorce is no longer disqualifying for a candidate, hasn't been since 1980, when the country elected Ronald Reagan, the divorced and remarried candidate. As national divorce rates skyrocketed, divorce lost its wounding political impact. The end.

至少從1980年，美國選出雷根這位離婚又再婚的候選人後，離婚不再使候選人喪失資格早已不是新聞。隨著美國離婚率不斷飆升，離婚已經不會再造成政治殺傷力。這就是結論。

Or was it

果真如此？

"I think people no longer have a unitary idea that divorce inevitably disqualifies you, but they still look at the dynamics," said Stephanie Coontz, of the Council on Contemporary Families, a nonprofit research group. "They are more disapproving of dishonest dynamics, by how someone handled his marriages, divorces, kids."

「我想人們不再抱持一元化的看法，認為離婚勢必剝奪你的資格，但他們還是會看看影響的層面多廣」，非營利「現代家庭委員會」的史泰芬妮．孔茲說。「他們比較不支持不老實的層次，像某人如何處理他的婚姻、離婚和子女問題。」

And now one of those kids has spoken up — Andrew Giuliani, Rudolph W. Giuliani's son. In a recent interview with The Times, Andrew, 21, said that he had been estranged from his father since Mr. Giuliani's bitter divorce from his mother, Donna Hanover, and his subsequent marriage to Judith Nathan. Andrew, and his sister, Caroline, 17, are expected to be absent from their father's campaign.

如今，其中一個孩子決定出來嗆聲，他就是已宣布參選的前紐約市長魯道夫．朱良尼的兒子安德魯。最近接受紐約時報專訪時，21歲的安德魯說，自從朱良尼和他母親唐娜．漢諾瓦痛苦難堪的離婚、隨後又和茱蒂絲．納桑再婚以來，他就和老爸關係疏遠，形同陌路。安德魯和17歲的妹妹卡洛琳料將不會出面幫老爸站台。

A problem No, said David Garth, a political consultant who advised Mr. Giuliani when he ran for mayor. "The more trouble the country is in, the more you tend to overlook some of the personal things you may have looked at before," he said.

這會是問題嗎？朱良尼過去參選紐約市長時的政治顧問葛斯表示不會。「國家越是多事之秋，你越可能忽視過去會正視的私人問題，」他說。

That is one theory: The voting public, practiced survivors of Bill Clinton's transgressions and former Senator Gary Hart's career-wrecking dalliance with a young woman, is less likely to dismiss a candidate because of personal foibles today, especially if worried about war and security.

有一套理論說：選民歷經柯林頓越軌和前參議員哈特和一名年輕女子調情自毀前程後，早已見怪不怪，現在比較不可能因候選人個人性格缺陷而判他出局，如果還要擔心戰爭和安全問題時尤其如此。

And the public can't be all that choosy anyway. Two additional Republican contenders have been divorced — Senator John McCain and the former House speaker, Newt Gingrich, an unannounced candidate. In an effort to get out ahead of a looming problem, Mr. Gingrich, divorced messily twice, acknowledged recently that he was having an extramarital affair even as pursued the impeachment of President Clinton over his fling with Monica Lewinsky. Mrs. Clinton stood by her man, earning both sympathy for her suffering, and criticism for not showing him the door.

反正選民已經不可能再那麼挑三撿四了。另外兩位角逐共和黨提名的候選人也離過婚，他們是參議員馬侃和不宣而戰的前眾院議長金瑞契。力圖走出迫在眉睫的問題、兩度離婚而且都搞得烏煙瘴氣的金瑞契最近自己招了，說當他磨刀霍霍緊咬前總統柯林頓和莫妮卡．陸文斯基一時的縱情不放，必欲彈劾之際，他自己也正在搞一段婚外情。柯林頓夫人力挺她老公，她的情傷固然博取同情，但也因為她未將他掃地出門而被痛批。

What will matter to voters about candidates (so far male candidates) with personally checkered lives "This will be in a way a kind of test of where the values of the electorate stand," said the historian Alan Brinkley of Columbia University. "There are not too many positions in America that Giuliani's messy personal life would obstruct. But the presidency might still be one of them."

對候選人（目前僅限於男性候選人）私生活錯綜複雜，選民怎麼看？「從某種角度看，這將是對選民價值立場的檢驗，」哥倫比亞大學歷史學家布林克利說。「畢竟美國可以因朱良尼亂糟糟的私生活而封殺的公職不多，但總統可能仍是其中之一。」

Crassness, the nature and number of divorces and acts of infidelity, seem to matter. In fact, adultery may be the new divorce.

但手段粗糙拙劣，離婚的性質和次數及不忠於婚姻的舉動似仍關係重大。事實上，通姦可能是新的離婚代名詞。

A survey in February by the Pew Research Center in Washington showed that while 86 percent of those questioned said divorce would make no difference in their willingness to support a candidate, only 56 percent said the same if the candidate had an extramarital affair; concerns about affairs were as high as 62 percent among Republicans (compared with 25 percent for Democrats.)

華盛頓Pew研究中心二月的一項調查顯示，雖然有86%受調者說，候選人離婚不致改變他們的支持意願，但如果候選人搞婚外情，只有56%答案不變；共和黨員有高達62%關切婚外情（相形之下，民主黨只有25%。）

Of course it is still early. "How voters think about personal qualities of the candidates may change as people learn more about them," Andrew Kohut, the Pew Center president, counseled.

當然，目前仍言之過早。「選民怎麼看候選人的個人特質，仍可能隨著大家對他們認識更多而改變，」Pew中心總裁柯胡特建議。

Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, said that a messy personal life can raise questions about a candidate's stability, judgment and ability to govern. Then again, some presidents with hidden, unorthodox lives managed to run the country quite well — Franklin Delano Roosevelt, for instance.

維吉尼亞大學政治科學家沙巴托說，私生活不檢點可能使人質疑候選人的定力、判斷力及統御力，但有些總統儘管私生活有不為人知、不合乎傳統的一面，像小羅斯福總統，倒是設法把國家治理得很好。

Mea culpas can help. So can support of a spouse, former or current. In 1992, Mrs. Clinton blunted allegations that her husband had strayed by joining him on "60 Minutes." Senator John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee for president, divorced his first wife, but amicably, and she supported him. Mr. McCain courted his second wife when he was still married to his first, but he took responsibility for the breakup and his former wife backed his presidential candidacy in 2000.

公開認錯有用，不管前任或現任配偶相挺也有幫助。1992年，柯林頓夫人和老公一起上「六十分鐘」，減弱對她老公出軌的指涉。2004年民主黨總統提名人、參議員凱瑞和第一任妻子在融洽的氣氛下離婚，因此她力挺他。馬侃在和第一任太太仍維持婚姻關係之際，就去追求第二任太太，但他為婚姻破裂負責，他前妻在2000年也支持他參選總統。

Doris Kearns Goodwin, the historian, points out that President Reagan wasn't hurt when his youngest daughter, Patti Davis, wrote a loosely fictionalized account of estrangements in her family because he was halfway through his second term by then, his public image well established.

歷史學家多麗絲．卡恩斯．古德溫指出，雷根總統的小女兒貝蒂．戴維斯寫一本不嚴謹的小說，影射她家人間彼此關係疏離，但因雷根當時第二任任期已幹完一半以上，他的公眾形象並未因此受損。

"I think what is harder for Giuliani is he is still so relatively unknown," Ms. Goodwin said. "As people begin to learn about his separation, his son, other incidents, they become the early impressions and those are hard to reshape. This will be a real test for him."

「我想對朱良尼較難的是，他知名度相對較低，」古德溫說。「當選民開始了解他鬧離婚，他兒子，和其他事件，它們就形成初期的印象，而這是很難重新塑造的，這對他將是真正的考驗。」