Immediately after Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, I urged Israel to think about how to respond by asking itself one question: What does your worst enemy want you to do? Then do the opposite. Iran and Hamas wanted Israel to rush headlong into Gaza — without any plan or Palestinian partner for the morning after — and unfortunately, Israel did just that.

去年10月7日哈馬斯入侵以色列後，我立即敦促以色列在思考如何應對時問自己一個問題：你最大的敵人希望你做什麼？然後做相反的事。伊朗和哈馬斯希望以色列一頭扎進加薩——沒有任何計劃，沒有能協助善後的巴勒斯坦合作方——不幸的是，以色列就是這麼做的。

At this moment of incredible importance for America and the Democratic Party, I would urge President Biden, his family and his party’s leadership to ask the same question: What does your worst enemy, Donald Trump, want you to do now? Then do the opposite.

在這個對美國和民主黨至關重要的時刻，我想敦促拜登總統、他的家人和他所在政黨的領導層提出同樣的問題：你們最大的敵人唐納德·川普現在希望你們做什麼？然後做相反的事。

Trump is salivating at the prospect of Biden staying in the presidential race so he can pummel him from now until Election Day with 15-second television and radio ads — not to mention memes on social media — of Biden’s incoherent responses in last week’s debate, each ad asking: Is this the man you want answering the phone at 3 a.m. if the Russians or the Chinese or the Iranians attack us?

川普渴盼著拜登能繼續參加大選。這樣他就可以從現在起到選舉日，每天用15秒鐘的電視和廣播廣告——當然還有社群媒體上的迷因——圍繞拜登上週辯論時語無倫次的表現狠狠地打擊他，每則廣告都會問：「如果俄羅斯人、中國人或伊朗人攻擊我們，你希望在凌晨三點接聽電話的是這個人嗎？」

That is a campaign the Trump G.O.P. cult is surely confident it can win. I suspect that the cultists have known all along that the only reason that Trump was leading in many key polls was so many potential Biden voters were not worried about price inflation; they were worried about age inflation — Biden’s. And if the Republicans could make that the issue, the election would fall into their laps.

這將是川普-共和黨邪教絕對有信心贏得的競選。我懷疑，邪教分子一直都知道，川普在許多關鍵民調中領先的唯一原因是，拜登的許多潛在選民擔心的不是物價上漲，而是年齡上漲——拜登的年齡。如果共和黨能把這個變成問題所在，大選勝利就會落入他們手中。

So, what keeps Trump up at 3 a.m.? My guess is a scenario where Biden turns to his family and his top advisers and pulls out a line from the musical “Hamilton”:

那麼，什麼會讓川普凌晨三點還睡不著呢？我的猜測是出現這個場景：拜登向他的家人和高級顧問求助，並引用音樂劇《漢彌爾頓》（Hamilton）中的一句台詞：

 喬治·華盛頓：我要辭職了。我不會競選總統。

 亞歷山大·漢彌爾頓：對不起，什麼？

 華盛頓：最後一次，放鬆點，跟我喝一杯。最後一次。我們今晚休息一下。然後我們將教會他們如何說再見。

Yes, what Trump fears most right now is that Biden will teach the country how to say goodbye.

是的，川普現在最擔心的是拜登會教這個國家如何說再見。

He fears that Biden will demonstrate the difference between a leader and a party who put the country first and a leader and a party who put themselves first, namely Trump and the Republicans who enable him despite knowing how many of Trump’s former advisers say he is unfit for office, despite knowing that Trump tried to overturn the last election, despite knowing that Trump has articulated no real plan for the country’s future other than “retribution” against all who crossed him and his followers.

他擔心拜登會展現把國家放在第一位的領導人和政黨與把自己放在第一位的領導人和政黨——川普和支持他的共和黨人——之間的區別。儘管這些共和黨人知道川普的許多前顧問都說他不適合擔任公職，儘管他們知道川普試圖推翻上次大選，儘管他們知道，川普除了對所有反對他和他的追隨者的人進行「報復」之外，並沒有為國家的未來制定真正的計劃。

How might Biden do what is best for the country and worst for Trump — a small man at a big time who is so unwilling to say goodbye that he will not even admit he lost the election in 2020 fair and square? Not by scrambling to shift a few panicky donors to his side to tough it out until November, insisting that he just had one bad debate night. And not by daring the party to remove him. He should elevate himself and the party above the whole fray.

川普是一個在大時代裡不願意說再見，甚至不願承認自己在2020年公平公正地輸掉了大選的小人。拜登如何才能做到對國家最有利、對川普最不利？答案不是手忙腳亂地把一些慌亂的捐款人爭取到自己一邊，硬撐到11月，堅稱自己只是在一個辯論之夜表現不佳。也不是挑戰民主黨，看它敢不敢罷免自己。他應該把自己和黨提升到整個紛爭之上。

That would entail declaring that he will release the delegates who vowed to vote for his nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August and work with the party to set up an orderly process between now and then for the next generation of Democratic candidates to make their cases to the public, and for the convention delegates to choose a new nominee. (By the way, a convention vote is how Lincoln and both Roosevelts got nominated — and that worked out pretty well for the country.)

這就意味著，他應宣布放棄那些已做出承諾的代表的支持——他們將在8月芝加哥民主黨全國代表大會上投票使他成為提名人——並與民主黨合作，立即開始建立一個有序的程序，讓下一代民主黨候選人向公眾闡述自己的立場，最終由大會代表選出新的提名人。(順便提一下，林肯總統和兩位羅斯福總統都是通過大會投票獲得提名的——到頭來都給這個國家帶來了相當不錯的結果）。

Biden could, if he wishes, endorse Vice President Kamala Harris, or he could remain neutral. But he should make clear that the nomination must be decided by an open competition. For the six weeks leading up to the convention and at the convention itself, everyone in America will be listening closely as the best of the next generation of Democrats present a hopeful vision for the country. What a contrast with a Republican convention whose only platform is the whims of their dear leader. Will it be messy? Sure, it will. But every alternative is messy now.

如果他願意的話，拜登可以選擇支持副總統卡馬拉·哈利斯，也可以保持中立。但他應該明確表示，提名必須通過公開競爭來決定。在民主黨大會召開前的六週以及大會召開的時候，美國每個人都將密切關注下一代民主黨人中最優秀的人為國家提出的充滿希望的願景。這將與共和黨大會形成鮮明對比，後者的唯一綱領就是他們親愛的領導人的突發奇想。到時候會很混亂嗎？當然會。但現在每個替代方案都很混亂。

Biden could add that once an alternative Democratic ticket is nominated, he will use his bully pulpit — and the credibility and admiration that this gesture will surely earn him from Americans of all political stripes — to ensure that they defeat Trump.

拜登可以補充說，一旦民主黨的替代候選人獲得提名，他將利用他的聲望和地位——以及這一舉動必將為他贏得的所有政治派別的美國人的讚賞和欽佩——確保他們擊敗川普。

Instead of having to defend himself from a tsunami of attack ads about his diminishing mental capacity, Biden could bombard the airwaves with a set of arguments that could answer Trump’s lies while reminding voters that the reason they elected him in 2020 was they knew that America can only stay great if it is led by a unifier, not an avenger.

這樣一來，拜登就不必疲於應付鋪天蓋地而來的關於他心智衰退的攻擊性廣告，而是可以通過電視廣播進行信息轟炸，反駁川普的謊言，同時提醒選民，他們之所以在2020年選了他，是因為他們知道只有由一個團結人民的人而不是復仇者來領導人民，美國才能保持偉大。

One ad could begin with one of Trump’s most outrageous lies trotted out in the debate last Thursday, about how the American economy has been a disaster since Biden entered the White House. To which Biden could say:

比如廣告一上來可以是川普在上週四辯論中拋出的最令人髮指的謊言之一，即自拜登入主白宮以來，美國經濟一直是一場災難。拜登可以這樣說：

You know, Donald, I read that you have to pay $88.3 million in damages for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll. I just did some back-of-the-envelope calculations: If you would have put $88.3 million in an S&P index fund the day I was inaugurated, it would be up roughly 40 percent right now. That’s about 35 million bucks, Donald. Some disaster! Think of the legal bills you could pay!

Another ad could quote Trump’s remarks about how he could work with President Vladimir Putin of Russia in ways Biden never could. To which Biden could say:

還可以引用川普的言論，即關於他是如何與俄羅斯總統弗拉基米爾·普丁合作的，而拜登永遠無法做到這一點。拜登可以這樣說：

Donald, do you know why, if Putin could vote in our election, he’d vote for you? It’s because he knows one thing about you: that you could never organize the kind of alliance that I put together to push him out of Ukraine and contain China. You’d just throw those alliances away because you can only envisage transactional relationships. A lasting alliance, Donald, like a lasting marriage, is not a transactional relationship. It’s cemented by shared values. You treat our allies as if they are all shoe stores in some Trump Tower lobby who are just not paying enough rent. Well, not only have you lied about how much our allies have contributed to Ukraine — massive amounts — you also have no clue about how much they amplify American power and values.

唐納德，如果普丁可以在我們的選舉裡投票，他會投票給你，你知道為什麼嗎？這是因為他了解你身上的這一點：你永遠無法組織起能將他趕出烏克蘭並遏制中國的聯盟，而我可以。你會拋棄這些聯盟，因為你能想到的只有生意場上的交易。唐納德，持久的聯盟，就像持久的婚姻一樣，不是交易關係。它是由共同的價值觀加固的。你對待我們的盟友就像他們都是川普大廈大堂裡沒有付夠租金的鞋店一樣。你不僅在我們的盟友對烏克蘭的貢獻方面胡說八道（他們實際做出了大量貢獻），你也不知道它們在多大程度上放大了美國的實力和價值觀。

These kinds of rebuttals of Trump would be the best parting gift Biden could give to his party and to all Americans.

對川普的這種反駁，將是拜登能給予他的黨和所有美國人的最好的離別禮物。

Gautam Mukunda, a presidential scholar and the author of “Picking Presidents,” pointed out to me the other day that “in 1783, when George Washington announced that he would surrender his commission, King George III of England — the man whose empire he destroyed — said that if he did this ‘he would be the greatest man in the world.’ Fourteen years later Washington did it again, leaving the presidency willingly when he could easily have made himself president for life. The father of our country sealed his greatness by showing that sometimes the best thing a president can do for his country is give up the presidency. Today, in the face of the worst threat to our democracy since the Civil War, Joe Biden can cement his legacy by following Washington’s example.”

研究總統的學者、《挑選總統》(Picking Presidents)一書的作者高塔姆·穆昆達前幾天向我指出，「1783年，當喬治·華盛頓宣布放棄對他的任命時，英國國王喬治三世——那位摧毀了大英帝國的君主——曾說過，如果他真的放棄任命，『他將成為世界上最偉大的人。』十四年後，華盛頓再次這樣做了，心甘情願地放棄了總統職位，而他本可以輕而易舉地成為終身總統。通過表明有時總統能為國家做的最好的事情就是放棄這個職位，我們的國父確立了他的偉大地位。今天，面對自內戰以來對美國民主的最嚴重威脅，喬·拜登可以效仿華盛頓，鞏固自己的政治遺產。」

Biden, besides being a good man, has been a truly consequential president. He deserves to be remembered as the leader who saved the country from Trump in 2020, lifted us from the dark days of the Covid pandemic, passed critical legislation to rebuild America’s infrastructure, renewed the dignity of work, promoted the transition to a green economy — and, in the end, knew when and how to say goodbye.

拜登不僅是一個好人，還是一位真正有影響力的總統。他值得被銘記，因為他在2020年拯救了美國，使美國擺脫了川普的領導，帶領我們走出了新冠疫情的黑暗時期，通過了重建美國基礎設施的重要立法，恢復了人們工作的尊嚴，促進了向綠色經濟的過渡——並且，最終，他知道何時以及如何說再見。