奥巴马总统畅谈失败经验 让我懂得谦卑

President Barack Obama won two straight elections for the White House, but during a talk with students at a town hall on race and sports he discussed a few times when he did not always come out on top.

美国总统贝拉克·奥巴马曾连赢两届总统大选，但在市政厅举办的一场与青年学子的交流座谈会中，奥巴马多次公开提到，自己也并不是一直都占据上风。

Obama recounted the fallout from his first presidential debate in his ultimately successful 2012 election race against Republican Mitt Romney.

奥巴马回想起2012年大选时，在首场辩论和共和党对手米特·罗姆尼唇枪舌战后的心路历程。

"I had that first debate, which was roundly panned. Everybody said you were terrible," Obama said at the town hall hosted by ESPN's The Undefeated at North Carolina AT State University.

奥巴马在运动频道ESPN旗下网站The Undefeated于北卡罗来纳农工州立大学主办的座谈会上表示：“我首场辩论的表现恶评如潮，大家都说我表现很差。”

"What is true is that I've always kind of hated these debate formats, so it wasn't my best performance."

“事实上，我平常就蛮讨厌这种辩论形式，所以没交出最好表现。”

He said what really inspired him to "dig deep" for the second debate was seeing young volunteers around the country.

奥巴马还提到，促使他全力以赴第二场辩论的动力来源于当时全国各地的青年志愿者们。

While they put on a brave face, Obama said he could tell they were worried about the race.

虽然他们故作坚强，但是自己能够从他们的脸上看出担心选情的情绪。

"I just thought to myself these kids are pouring their hearts and souls into making calls and knocking on doors, I'm not going to disappoint them," he said.

奥巴马说道：“我跟我自己说，这些孩子们付诸了全部的心力，又是打电话，又是敲门拉票，我不能让他们失望。”

Obama also described his experience losing his first campaign for a U.S. congressional seat in 2000 and how it humbled him. Without that defeat, Obama said he did not believe he would have went on to win his Senate race in 2004.

奥巴马也提到2000年首次参选国会失利让他懂得谦卑，要不是有那次失败经验，他可能没办法再接再厉，进而在2004年赢得联邦参议院席次。

"What is true about politics that is similar to sports, though, is when you lose, you lose publicly," he said. "It's a hard feeling. One of the benefits of defeat is to take some of the vanity out of what it is you're trying to achieve."

“政治和运动差不多的地方就在于，失败时，会搞得众所皆知，那感觉不好受。被打败的好处之一，就是你对努力想达成的目标，会少了点虚荣之心。”