TIME January 22, 2018

Time Asia [US] January 22 2018 (単号)

　大雪の峠は越えたようだ。雪下ろしは、まだ慌ててする必要はなさそう。
　30日から4連休。家の前に溜まっている雪を捨てることに専念しよう。

　ずっとタイムを全部読むと言ってきたが、もしかしたら正確ではなかったかもしれない。読まないページもあったからだ。広告である。　
　今回は広告にも目を通してみた。量は多くないし、一つ一つの文章も短めである。一度読んでしまえば、いつもほとんど同じ広告ばかりだから、次からは新しいものだけ見ればよい。負担というほどのことはない。

　特集はトランプのイヤー・ワン。
　最近出版されて話題になった『Fire and Fury』という本も紹介されている。

For the criticism of Wolf’s methods, much about the portrait rings true. Trump didn’t expect to win and, if he thought about it, probably didn’t want to. The campaign itself gave him the power and the glory and the profits. The office takes those away. In the terms he cares about―nuclear button notwithstanding―he is in many ways less powerful as President than he was a year ago. Candidates can say whatever they want about what they will do; Presidents are expected go out and do it. There’s more ridicule and much less freedom. Harry Truman’s “great white jail” is spartan compared with a life pinballing between Mar-a-Lago and Fifth Avenue. The rewards of the office, such as they are, aren’t rewarding to Trump, other than the pomp, the crowd, the chance to show off the Lincoln Bedroom or to see in our response an awe he does not share but likes provoking. The fuel that powers the presidency―the passion for ideas, the attachment to allies, the give and take of practical politics―gives him no energy. So this is an exhausting, even debilitating, life for a 71-year-old, much less one with little curiosity or sense of mission beyond self-interest. The most thin-skinned public figure imaginable has been exposed to the elements. And he doesn’t like them. (pp.26-27)