If Donald Trump loses the White House to Joe Biden in November, one thought is liable to disturb his sleep ever after. No one has gone to such extreme and impeachable lengths to dig out the former vice-president’s ethical liabilities. And yet no one has done more to make them appear so banal. Had the US president not contributed so lavishly to the debasement of public life, Mr Biden’s fabulist tendencies might disturb more voters than they seem to. So might the vexed question of his son Hunter. As it is, neither kind of baggage is weighing down his surge in the Democratic primaries.
如果唐納•川普(Donald Trump)在今年11月的總統大選中輸給喬•拜登(Joe Biden)，一種想法可能會讓他從此睡不好覺。從沒有人如此不遺餘力地挖掘這位前副總統的道德過錯，甚至不惜採取可被彈劾的手段。然而，正是川普的所作所爲使拜登的這些過錯顯得無足輕重了。如果這位美國總統沒有爲公共生活質量的降低做出如此慷慨的貢獻，拜登的屢屢說謊可能會令比現在更多的選民感到不安。他的兒子杭特(Hunter)這個棘手的問題可能也是如此。而現在，這兩件包袱都沒有影響到他在民主黨初選中的強勁勢頭。