As 20 of the Democrats vying for the party’s presidential nomination took to the stage for the first debates of the primary season on Wednesday and Thursday, it is critical, sayeth the pundits, that each one maximizes his or her impact and stands out from the crowd.

周三和周四，20名争夺本党总统提名的民主党人登上首场初选辩论的舞台，权威专家有言，每个人都应该实现自己的存在感最大化，在众人中冒出头来，这一点至关重要。

But how much standing out can occur when the rules dictate 60 seconds of response time per candidate and 30 seconds of follow-up, meaning each will have, at most, six to 10 minutes, total, to make a case? It’s hard to imagine.

但按照规则，每位候选人有60秒的时间回答问题，另有30秒的后续补充，这意味着加起来，每人最多有6至10分钟做陈述，究竟能在多大程度上脱颖而出?很难想象。

Until you consider that each candidate will be onstage for another 110 minutes — albeit silently. And in that silence lies a whole other communication opportunity.

直到你细想一下，发现每个候选人除了发言以外，还要在台上待110分钟——虽然是默不作声的。而这种沉默中蕴含着另一种完全不同的沟通契机。

“When I do media training, I always tell my clients 10 percent of how you are received is what you actually said,” said Hilary Rosen, a Democratic strategist and media consultant with SKDKnickerbocker. “Fifteen percent is how you said what you said, and 75 percent is how you appear.”

“在做媒体培训时，我总会告诉客户，别人对你的看法，有10%是来自你实际说过的话，”民主党策略师、公关公司SKDKnickerbocker媒体顾问希拉里·罗森(Hilary Rosen)说。“15%是你怎么说、说什么，75%是你的形象。”

Or rather: how you can influence opinion through image making. These are televised debates, after all, and there’s a reason we in the audience are called “viewers.”

确切地说：如何通过形象的塑造影响舆论。毕竟这是电视辩论，我们这些受众被称作“观众”也是有原因的。

“If you are a strategist for one of the top-tier or second-tier candidates, you are thinking through every element of presentation, whether it’s tie color, lapel pin or expression,” said Jen Psaki, a White House communications director in the Obama administration. “And you are doing it with the knowledge that a big part of the way voters make decisions is based on the visual representation the candidate projects.”

“如果你是一线或二线候选人的策略师，你会仔细考虑每一个表现元素，无论是领带颜色、翻领别针还是表情，”奥巴马政府白宫通讯联络主管珍·萨基(Jen Psaki)说。“并且这么做的同时，你同样明白选民做决定的方式在很大程度上是基于候选人的视觉呈现。”

Thanks to both the Trump-driven mediagenics of this particular political moment, when going viral is as crucial as going door to door, and the crowded field, the need to make yourself memorable, and imprint your likeness on the retinas of the electorate, has become a campaign imperative. No matter what gender the candidate.

由于这个特定政治时刻的特朗普驱动媒体遗传学——在网上形成病毒式传播和挨家挨户去敲门一样关键，也由于赛场的拥挤程度，让人记住你，让你的形象印刻在选民视网膜上，在竞选中已经是必不可少。无论候选人是男性还是女性。

“Men have just as much of a challenge as women,” Ms. Rosen said, pointing out that President Trump understands this implicitly. “He got the last laugh with his hair. And his long tie. He crafted a look, and it helped him stand out.”

“男性和女性面临的挑战一样大，”罗森说，并指出特朗普总统肯定了解这一点。“他凭着他的发型笑到了最后。还有他的长领带。他精心设计了一个造型，借此脱颖而出。”

To compete, his rivals will have to engage in the same way. “In the back of everyone’s mind will be, ‘How will that person look on a debate stage with Donald Trump?’” Ms. Rosen said.

要与之竞争，他的对手们必须采用同样的方式。“每个人内心深处都在想，‘那个人和唐纳德·特朗普同台辩论会是什么样?’”罗森说。

A few of those running seem to have grasped this reality more firmly than others. Indeed, a handful of the candidates have been relentlessly consistent in defining their own image.

一些竞选者似乎比其他人更稳固地把握住了这一现实。事实上，少数候选人在定义自己的形象方面一直都坚持做到前后一致。

Some of that can be attributed to what Ms. Rosen calls the “Steve Jobs rationale” — reducing both packing and the daily decision-making process of getting dressed frees up brain space for other issues — and some to the desire for keeping clothes from being a subject of conversation. (If you wear the same thing all the time, you don’t leave people much to say.)

其中一部分可归结为罗森所说的“史蒂夫·乔布斯(Steve Jobs)理念”——减少形象包装和日常穿戴决策程序有助于腾出心思应对其他问题，另一部分也是希望避免穿着成为议论的话题。(如果你一直穿一样的衣服，就不会给人留下太多话可说。)

But it also has the subconscious effect of essentially creating an emoji for the self, a visual shorthand for values and platforms in a time when — bemoan it or not — we increasingly communicate in pictogram shorthand.

但它也有潜意识效果，本质上是创建自己的个人表情符号，在一个——无论你觉得是喜是悲——我们越来越多地用表情符号交流的时代，它是对价值观和施政纲领的一种简约的视觉表达。

There’s no question that on the debate stage decorum dictates that most participants will play it safe in the classic suit and tie (if relevant). But details matter, and certain precedents have been set.

毫无疑问，辩论舞台的礼仪意味着大多数选手都会保险起见，采用经典的套装和领带(有必要的话)。但细节很重要，已经有一些前车之鉴。