【中美创新时报2024 年 7 月 26 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）政治中有一个简单的规则：先定义自己，否则你的对手就会定义自己。考虑到这一点，哈里斯应该澄清她在几个关键问题上的立场。她的回答对她的进步派支持者和保守派批评者都很重要。《波士顿环球报》记者詹姆斯·平德尔（James Pindell）对此作了下述报道。
副总统卡马拉·哈里斯已经竞选总统四天了。然而，她的记录和公开声明跨越了二十年。
在此期间，哈里斯在政坛迅速崛起，尽管她的品牌发生了变化——从严厉打击犯罪的地方检察官变成了批评 1990 年代犯罪法案的人，因为她在 2020 年总统竞选期间过于严厉。
下个月美国政治的旋风将决定 2024 年总统大选，并回答“卡马拉·哈里斯在政治上是谁？”的问题。
关于后者，政治中有一个简单的规则：先定义自己，否则你的对手就会定义自己。
考虑到这一点，哈里斯应该澄清她在几个关键问题上的立场。她的回答对她的进步派支持者和保守派批评者都很重要。
1. 哈里斯政府将如何处理中东问题？
哈里斯可能在很大程度上延续美国目前对沙特阿拉伯和伊朗的态度。然而，加沙战争严重分裂了民主党。以色列领导人本杰明·内塔尼亚胡本周在国会联席会议上的讲话充分展示了这种分歧。一些民主党议员完全抵制了他的讲话。相比之下，拜登欢迎内塔尼亚胡来到椭圆形办公室，内塔尼亚胡称赞拜登是“爱尔兰裔美国犹太复国主义者”。
哈里斯发出了相反的信号。她是政府中第一个呼吁停火的人，据报道，白宫官员淡化了她呼吁向加沙提供更多人道主义援助的讲话。
注意她本周的行动。她以参议院议长的身份错过了内塔尼亚胡的讲话，而是在印第安纳波利斯的黑人姐妹会大会上发表讲话。与此同时，她发表声明，称破坏华盛顿联合车站外广场的抗议者“不爱国”。
2. 她是否仍然认为那些非法越境的人实际上并没有违法？
移民问题仍然是 2024 年竞选活动的首要问题。作为旧金山的检察官，哈里斯的办公室与国家移民执法机构合作，这一举动今天受到进步选民的谴责。
在 2019 年民主党总统初选辩论中，她与其他候选人一起表示，她将使非法越境美国合法化。这与她在 2015 年对加州一家电视台说的话一致：“不幸的是，我知道什么是犯罪。我知道犯罪的罪犯是什么样子。无证移民不是罪犯。”
作为副总统，她前往中美洲告诉潜在的移民“不要来”，并警告如果他们来的话将承担法律后果。
共和党人已经开始在这个问题上定义哈里斯，称边境问题是她担任副总统期间最大的失败之一。
3. 她还相信全民医保吗？
在 2020 年竞选总统之前，哈里斯是第一位签署由佛蒙特州参议员伯尼·桑德斯起草的全民医保计划的参议员。她希望在初选中与桑德斯、参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦和其他支持政府运营的健康保险计划的人竞争，以确保自己的进步主义声誉。
拜登一直反对这个想法。自他当选以来，全民医保的讨论一直处于沉寂状态，但如果哈里斯接受她之前的立场，讨论可能会重新浮出水面。
自由派希望她这样做，但希望攻击它的保守派也希望她这样做。
4. 她还支持绿色新政吗？水力压裂呢？
作为参议员，哈里斯共同发起了绿色新政决议，其中包括纽约州众议员亚历山大·奥卡西奥-科尔特斯和马萨诸塞州参议员埃德·马基提出的有争议的环境和经济提案。
与全民医保一样，拜登并没有正式支持绿色新政，但他的政府和国会通过了重要的气候立法。
支持绿色新政一直是自由主义者的荣誉象征，也是多年来一直批评它的共和党人的攻击目标。但这并不是唯一可能再次困扰哈里斯的立场。
哈里斯上次竞选总统时，在 2019 年的气候论坛上明确表示：“毫无疑问，我支持禁止水力压裂。”
水力压裂开采天然气推动了美国能源繁荣，对宾夕法尼亚州西部的社区尤其重要。然而，人们担心其环境安全性和对化石燃料的依赖。
当她需要赢得宾夕法尼亚州时，她会保持这一立场吗？共和党人曾利用这一问题对付民主党人。共和党人并不急于知道答案，他们已经开始利用她过去的立场为自己谋利。共和党参议员候选人戴夫·麦考密克在一则广告中利用了哈里斯关于水力压裂的评论，攻击的不是哈里斯，而是他的对手宾夕法尼亚州参议员鲍勃·凯西。
题图：周四，副总统卡马拉·哈里斯抵达马里兰州安德鲁斯空军基地后，从空军二号走下。BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/美联社
附原英文报道：
Four policy questions Harris must answer ASAP to avoid being defined by Trump
By James Pindell Globe Staff,Updated July 26, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris has been running for president for four days. However, her record and public statements span two decades.
During that time, Harris has quickly risen in politics, though her brand has shifted — from a tough-on-crime local prosecutor to a critic of the 1990s crime bill for being too harsh during her 2020 presidential run.
The whirlwind of American politics over the next month will define both the 2024 presidential election and answer the question, “Who is Kamala Harris politically?”
Regarding the latter, there is a simple rule in politics: Define yourself first or your opponent will.
With that in mind, Harris should clarify her stance on several key issues. Her answers will be important for both her progressive base and conservative critics.
1. How would a Harris administration handle the Middle East?
Harris might largely continue the current US posture toward Saudi Arabia and Iran. However, the Gaza war has deeply divided the Democratic Party. The split was on full display during a speech by Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu to a joint session of Congress this week. Some Democratic lawmakers boycotted his remarks entirely. In contrast, Biden welcomed Netanyahu to the Oval Office, where Netanyahu praised Biden as an “Irish American Zionist.”
Harris has signaled otherwise. She was the first in the administration to call for a cease-fire, and White House officials reportedly watered down a speech in which she called for more humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Note her actions this week. She missed Netanyahu’s speech in her role as president of the Senate to speak at a Black sorority convention in Indianapolis. At the same time, she issued a statement calling protesters who vandalized the plaza outside of Washington’s Union Station “unpatriotic.”
2. Does she still believe that those crossing the border illegally didn’t actually break a law?
Immigration remains a top issue in the 2024 campaign. As prosecutor in San Francisco, Harris’s office worked with national immigration enforcement agencies, a move decried by progressive voters today.
During a 2019 Democratic presidential primary debate, she joined other candidates in saying she would decriminalize crossing into the United States illegally. This was consistent with what she told a California television station in 2015: “Unfortunately, I know what crime looks like. I know what a criminal looks like who’s committing a crime. An undocumented immigrant is not a criminal.”
As vice president, she traveled to Central America to tell potential migrants, “do not come,” warning of legal consequences if they did.
Republicans have already begun defining Harris on this issue by saying the border is one of her biggest failures as vice president.
3. Does she still believe in Medicare for All?
Before her 2020 presidential run, Harris was the first senator to sign onto a Medicare for All plan authored by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. She wanted to secure her progressive credentials in a primary against Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and others who supported a government-run health insurance program.
Biden has always opposed this idea. Since his election, the Medicare for All discussion has been dormant but could resurface if Harris embraces her prior position.
Liberals want her to, but so do conservatives who hope to attack it.
4. Does she still support the Green New Deal? And what about fracking?
As a senator, Harris co-sponsored the Green New Deal resolution, which includes controversial environmental and economic proposals by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey.
Like Medicare for All, Biden did not officially support the Green New Deal, but his administration and Congress have passed significant climate legislation.
Backing the Green New Deal has been a badge of honor for liberals and a target for Republicans who have criticized it for years. But it’s not the only position that could come back to haunt Harris.
When she last ran for president, Harris was clear at a 2019 climate forum, “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.”
Fracking for natural gas has driven the US energy boom and is particularly important for communities in Western Pennsylvania. However, there are concerns about its environmental safety and its reliance on fossil fuels.
Will she maintain this position when she needs to win Pennsylvania, where Republicans have used the issue against Democrats? Republicans aren’t waiting to find out and have already begun to use her past positions to their advantage. Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick used Harris’s comments about fracking in an ad attacking not Harris, but his opponent Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania.
