Germans are gaga over Barack Obama. He's got Japan pretty jazzed, too, along with Hillary Rodham Clinton. Russia's leaders, not so much: They prefer a Republican -- as long as it's not Kremlin critic John McCain.
德國人掀起歐巴馬熱；日本也相當迷他和希拉蕊．柯林頓。俄羅斯領導人則不太熱中：他們偏愛共和黨人，只要不是經常痛批克里姆林宮的馬侃就行。
And Mexico's president He doesn't have much use for any of them.
墨西哥總統呢？任何人當選他都派不上用場。
America's extraordinary presidential campaign has captivated politicians and ordinary people around the globe. With so much at stake in the race for the White House, the world is watching with an intensity that hasn't been seen since the Clinton era began in 1992.
美國這次不同凡響的總統選戰已緊緊抓住全球政治人物和老百姓的注意力。角逐白宮寶座攸關重大，世人正以1992年柯林頓時代登場以來罕見的強度密切觀察這場選戰。
After eight years of President Bush, the latest mantra in U.S. politics -- "transformational change" -- is res-onating across the rest of a planet desperate for a fresh start.
布希總統在位八年後，美國政界最近的二字真言「變革」，已經引起地球上其他亟欲重新出發的國家產生共鳴。
"They feel there's a real chance to work with the U.S.," said Julianne Smith, a senior fellow at the Wash-ington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. "America's im-age in the world is really on the line." Non-Americans, she said, are looking for someone who can "restore faith in the United States."
華府國際戰略研究中心資深研究員茱莉安．史密斯說：「他們覺得真的有機會和美國合作。美國在世界的形象實在模稜兩可、曖昧不明。」她並指出，非美國人正引頸企盼出現一位可以「恢復對美國信心」的領袖。
Obama, perhaps not surprisingly, is generating most of the buzz abroad. "Der schwarze Kennedy," some Ger-man admirers are calling him: "The black JFK." "He is young, charming and sexy!" the mass-circulation newspaper Bild gushed. "Obama is now the ideal projection for hopes and expectations in Europe" and the U.S. alike, said Christian Hacke, a professor at the University of Bonn.
歐巴馬，不出所料，在海外引起最多談論。有些崇拜他的德國人稱他「黑人甘迺迪。」德國發行量很大的「畫報」堆砌溢美之辭：「他年輕、迷人、性感！」波昂大學的哈克教授則說，「歐巴馬如今已成歐洲和美國希望和期待的理想投影。」
"I like him. I like his ideas, his atti-tude, his appearance. I prefer him to Hillary Clinton, who is more artificial," said Eva Berto, a Rome doctor who thinks Obama would bring a new approach to the crisis in Iraq and the nuclear standoff with Iran.
「我喜歡他，也欣賞他的理念，他的態度，他的外表。我寧可選他而不是希拉蕊，她比較矯揉造作，」羅馬醫師艾娃．伯托說，她認為歐巴馬會給伊拉克危機和伊朗核子僵局帶來新的對策。
Japanese media are closely tracking both Obama and the woman they re-fer to simply as "Hillary," and focus-ing on the possibility that either could make history. "The idea since the country's founding -- 'You can't be-come president if you're not a white man' -- has already been destroyed," the Mainichi newspaper said in an editorial.
日本媒體也密切追蹤報導歐巴馬和他們以「希拉蕊」簡稱的那位女性候選人，焦點放在這兩人都可能改寫歷史。「每日新聞」在社論中說：「自美國立國以來總是認定，除非白種男人，否則不可能當上總統，這種看法已經不攻自破。」
But in Europe, where some see Obama as untested, support for Clin-ton is widespread, and nostalgia for her husband's charisma runs deep. When scandals rocked the Clinton White House, most Europeans re-sponded with a Gallic shrug. "No-body could ever understand why Americans were so upset. Bill Clinton was always a fantastic presence in Eu-rope," said Patrick Dunleavy, a polit-ical scientist at the London School of Economics.
但在歐洲，有些人認為歐巴馬太嫩、歷練不夠，普遍支持希拉蕊，他們尤其深切懷念她丈夫的魅力。當柯林頓鬧緋聞撼動白宮寶座時，大部分歐洲人的回應是來個法式聳聳肩不屑一顧。倫敦政經學院政治學家丹里維說：「沒有人能夠理解，美國人為什麼要搞得天翻地覆，柯林頓在歐洲一直占有了不起的地位。」
The Republican presidential hope-fuls, by contrast, are not highly re-garded in Europe: Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee are seen as too reli-gious, and the 71-year-old McCain as too old.
相形之下，歐洲普遍不看好共和黨總統參選人：羅姆尼和哈克比宗教色彩太重，71歲的馬侃則太老。
To Britons, history's most popular postwar presidents were Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton because of their per-ceived levelheadedness and intelli-gence, said Dunleavy. The most de-spised President Bush and Ronald Reagan "because they were seen as erratic and unpredictable," he said.
丹里維表示，對英國人而言，戰後歷史上人望最高的總統是卡特和柯林頓，因為他們一望可知穩健冷靜又聰明過人。最被看扁的則是布希總統和雷根，「因為一般認為他們不穩定、難捉摸又善變難測，」他說。
Yet Democrats don't rule the entire world of public opinion. Saad al-Hadithi, a political analyst in Baghdad, contends the Republican candidates are more committed to I-raq and have a better approach. "They show more support to the political progress and to combating terrorist groups in Iraq," he said. "The Democrats, especially Hillary Clinton, are calling for the withdrawal of U.S. forces, but they are not offering an alternative. Such a withdrawal while the Iraqi security forces are still weak will lead to disastrous results."
但全球輿論並非全面倒向民主黨。伊拉克巴格達政情分析家哈迪提認為，共和黨候選人比較願意介入伊拉克，也有比較好的策略。他說：「他們比較支持伊拉克政治進程，也比較勇於對抗伊拉克恐怖團體。民主黨人，尤其是希拉蕊，不斷呼籲美國撤軍，但又未提出替代方案，這時撤軍，由於伊拉克安全部隊力量仍很薄弱，將導致悲慘的後果。」
Africans naturally gravitate toward Obama, whose father was from Kenya.
由於歐巴馬的父親是肯亞人，非洲人自然力挺他到底。
（取材自「美聯社」）