WASHINGTON — As President Obama faced public criticism over his Oval Office address on terrorism this month, one lawmaker took a private moment during a holiday party at the White House to reassure the commander in chief.

华盛顿――这个月，奥巴马总统在椭圆办公室就恐怖主义的演讲遭受公众批评，一位议员在白宫的假日派对上，利用私人时间帮助总统打消疑虑。

“That was a good speech you gave last night, Mr. President,” Representative Steve Cohen, Democrat of Tennessee, told Mr. Obama as he stopped to have his picture taken with him in the photo line at the black-tie congressional ball last week. “It’s hard to be the grown-up in the nation.”

上个星期，在正装国会舞会上，当奥巴马与田纳西州民主党众议员史蒂夫·科恩(Steve Cohen)合照时，科恩说， “昨天晚上你的演讲很好，总统先生，在这个国家里当成年人是很困难的。”

It was one of hundreds of seconds-long interactions that the president and the first lady, Michelle Obama, are having with guests at some of the 20 holiday receptions that crowd their lives each December. Eagerly anticipated, sometimes politically fraught and often agonizingly awkward, photo-line banter with the president has become a staple of the holiday season in Washington, where yuletide ritual meets professional opportunism — all in the course of about six seconds.

每年12月，总统与第一夫人米歇尔·奥巴马(Michelle Obama)都要忙着参加20次节日接待会，其间，类似这样持续几秒钟的互动会发生好几百次。每逢华盛顿的12月底，圣诞佳节的例行公事与职业机会主义交汇在一起，与总统合照期间的打趣也就成了这段时间的重要节目，它们备受期待，有时充满政治涵义，不过大多数时候都非常笨拙——一切都发生在六秒钟之内。

“You need to bomb the Iranian nuclear facilities,” Representative Michele Bachmann, Republican of Minnesota, told Mr. Obama last year in one such brief exchange, taking advantage of her last holiday soiree with the president before leaving Congress. The president told her that it was not that simple, according to an account she gave to The Washington Free Beacon.

“你得轰炸伊朗的核设施了，”去年的类似场合上，明尼苏达州共和党众议员米歇尔·巴赫曼恩(Michele Bachmann)抓住她离开国会之前最后一次参加总统招待会的时机，对奥巴马总统说道。后来她在接受“华盛顿自由灯塔”(The Washington Free Beacon)网站采访时说，总统告诉她，事情没有那么容易。

Jokes are told, interviews are requested and unsolicited advice is given to the president along with handshakes, high-fives and the not-infrequent deer-in-headlights stare from a speechless guest. Family members are introduced — and often star-struck.

在这段时间里，有人讲笑话，有人要求采访，有人主动给出建议，人们和总统握手、击掌，但也经常有嘉宾一言不发，茫然地瞪着总统。嘉宾会向总统介绍自己的家人，他们经常被总统的明星气场震慑住。

“To staff the president and first lady at the holiday photo line is to observe humanity in its most awkward state,” said Bill Burton, a former top press official in Mr. Obama’s White House.

“帮助总统和第一夫人拍摄假日照片总会见识到尴尬状态下的人性，”奥巴马班底的前任首席新闻官比尔·伯顿(Bill Burton)说。

Mr. Obama, who barely tolerates the schmoozing that is presidential tradition, does far fewer receiving lines than his predecessors. George W. Bush and his wife, Laura Bush, worked a photo line at each of the 25 holiday parties he hosted in 2008, his last year in office, but the Obama White House has eliminated all but a handful. Congress and the news media are among the groups that still stand in line for the presidential grip-and-grin.

奥巴马不太能忍受这个闲聊的传统，和他的前任乔治·W·布什(George W. Bush)与劳拉·布什(Laura Bush)相比，他安排合影的次数要少得多。布什夫妇在白宫的最后一年，也就是2008年，他们在25个节日派对上都安排了合照活动，但奥巴马只在四五个节日派对上安排合照。在这样的活动中，国会议员与媒体成员都可以静静站在总统身边，与他握手，面带笑容，合影留念。

The Obamas cut back the ritual in part because it is demanding and time-consuming — each line lasts as long as two and a half hours — and in part because they wanted to give as many people as possible an opportunity to visit the White House.

奥巴马夫妇缩减这样的活动，一来是为了节省时间——每次合影都要持续大约两个半小时——二来是因为他们想尽量让更多人能够参观白宫。

“It’s just long and tiring and pretty hard to get through,” Tina Tchen, Mrs. Obama’s chief of staff, said in an interview. “We also had to balance, from a staff perspective, having photo lines versus how many people we could get in.”

“这个过程很长、很累人，而且相当辛苦，”奥巴马夫人的幕僚长陈远美(Tina Tchen)在接受采访时说。“从员工角度而言，我们也要在拍照合影以及让更多人进入白宫之间做出平衡。”

By eliminating the receiving line, Ms. Tchen said, the White House is able to invite twice as many guests to a party. But the private backlash has been fierce in some quarters.

陈女士说，减少了合影的接待环节，白宫就可以邀请两倍的客人来参加派对。但是私下里，有些人对此也做出了激烈的抱怨。

The moment can be about much more than a picture. The congressional party at the White House last week was Mr. Obama’s first face-to-face encounter with Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, since Mr. Ryan assumed his post in November. If the two spoke about the year-end budget agreement needed to prevent the government from shutting down, neither side would say so.

这个时刻远不止拍照那么简单。自11月威斯康辛州共和党众议员保罗·D·瑞安(Paul D. Ryan)当选众议院议长之后，上周在白宫举行的国会派对是奥巴马总统第一次与他会面。即使两人讨论了为防止政府停工而做出的年终预算决议，双方也是不会承认的。

Drama unfolds in the photo line as well. In 1999, a year after managing impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton, Representative James E. Rogan, Republican of California, lined up with his wife to be photographed with the president and Hillary Clinton.

在合照活动中，也会发生戏剧性事件。1999年，也就是比尔·克林顿总统(President Bill Clinton)遭受弹劾一年之后，加利福尼亚州共和党众议员詹姆斯·E·罗根（James E. Rogan，克林顿弹劾案中的检察官之一——译注）携妻子与总统及希拉里·克林顿(Hillary Clinton)合影。

When the Rogans’ turn came and they were announced, Mr. Rogan said in an interview, Mr. Clinton “kind of looked at me funny for a moment, then he let out this big sigh and gave me a huge smile and said: ‘Jim, thanks for coming. I’m really glad you’re here. Merry Christmas.’ ”

后来罗根先生在采访中说，轮到他们夫妇合影时，克林顿总统“有点滑稽地盯着我看了一会儿，然后大声叹了口气，露出一个开朗的笑容说，‘吉姆，谢谢你能来，你来了我真是太高兴了。圣诞快乐。’”

“It felt like he and I had kind of patched it up,” Mr. Rogan said. But Mrs. Clinton, who was distracted while saying goodbye to the previous guest, was not as friendly. When she finally noticed Mr. Rogan, her eyes widened with surprise, he said, and she gripped his hands tensely. “There was some iciness there and a bit of a grimace,” he said.

“感觉有点像我们和好了，”罗根说，但是克林顿夫人正忙着和上一位客人说再见，显得不那么友好。后来她注意到下一位是罗根先生，不禁惊讶地睁大了双眼，他说，她紧紧握住他的双手，“有点冷漠，又略带一丝痛苦，”他说。

The encounter apparently touched a nerve at the White House. Soon after, the picture of the Rogans and the Clintons turned up in a widely read Washington newspaper column alongside an item suggesting that Mr. Rogan was hypocritical for promoting his rivalry with the Clintons in fund-raising appeals and then jockeying for a photograph with them at the White House.

这次会面显然触动了白宫的神经。不久后，罗根夫妇与克林顿夫妇的照片出现在华盛顿一家报纸有很多读者的专栏上，附文认为，罗根是个伪君子，他在自己的筹款活动中宣扬自己和克林顿夫妇的敌对关系，之后又千方百计进入白宫与他们合影。

Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic strategist and lobbyist with close ties to the White House who has attended holiday parties there for decades, said, “I was always surprised at the members of Congress who had adverse relationships with the president, sometimes very personal adverse relationships — either they went to the floor to impeach him or they went to the floor and called him a war criminal — but they would show up at the Christmas party with their spouse and their children in tow and pose for the picture like nothing had happened.”

民主党战略家与院外游说者史蒂夫·埃尔曼多夫(Steve Elmendorf)同白宫有着密切的关系，十几年来一直都有参加白宫节日派对，他说，“有些国会议员和总统之间是敌对关系，有时候甚至是非常私人的敌对关系，他们有的弹劾总统，有的管他叫战犯——但一到圣诞派对，他们还是会带着伴侣和孩子们过来摆姿势拍照，好像什么事都没有发生过一样，我一直都觉得很奇怪。”

There are few breaks for the Obamas in the crush of photo-line encounters. Aides make sure the president and first lady get brief moments to sip water or use a restroom, and extra padding is placed under the carpet they stand on in the Diplomatic Reception Room for added comfort. Guests are given color-coded, timed tickets telling them when to join the queue, and military social aides are on hand to move them speedily through, take their names and announce the guests when it is their turn for a portrait, captured by the official White House photographer.

在合影的人潮之中，奥巴马夫妇几乎没空休息。助理们要确保总统和第一夫人能抽出短暂的时间喝口水，上个厕所。在合影的外交官接待室里，工作人员在总统夫妇站立的地毯下面多加了一个垫子，让他们能够舒服一点。宾客们得到不同颜色的编码和时间卡，告诉他们何时应当去排队，军事公关助理帮他们迅速行动，轮到他们拍照的时候报出他们的名字，这些照片都是由白宫官方摄影师拍摄。

“We always used to tell the president and Mrs. Bush beforehand how many clicks were to be expected that night so they would be mentally prepared,” said Amy Zantzinger, who served as Mrs. Bush’s social secretary. “What always surprised me was the person who wouldn’t move on, the person that had to tell a story or multiple stories and just would not budge.”

“我们总得事先告诉布什总统和总统夫人，当晚有多少人合影，好让他们做好心理准备，”布什总统夫人的公关秘书艾米·赞津格(Amy Zantzinger)说。“有些人不愿意离开，他们有一个或者好几个故事要讲，就是不愿意动窝，这些人总是让我吃惊。”

The military social aides also hold women’s purses, both for convenience and to discourage requests for autographs or selfies with the president.

军事公关助理还会帮女士们拿包，一方面是为了方便，一方面也是为了防止客人们要签名或者要求和总统自拍。

Ann Compton, who covered the White House for 40 years for ABC News, said she almost always treated the photo as a crucial, although brief, opportunity to buttonhole the president with a question only he could answer. The exception was at the first President George Bush’s 1992 holiday party, a somber affair because he had just lost in his re-election campaign and was preparing to leave the White House.

ABC新闻台的安·康普顿(Ann Compton)40年来一直报道白宫新闻，她说，每一年拍照的时间虽然短暂，但她却总是把它当做一个重要的机会，强迫总统听一个只有他本人能够回答的问题。唯一的例外是老布什总统(George Bush)1992年的圣诞派对，那是一次惨淡的活动，当时他刚刚在连任选举中失利，准备离开白宫了。

Ms. Compton said that she and her husband had opted not to join the photo line, but that they then encountered the Bushes as they were posing with the last guests.

康普顿说，她和丈夫决定不参加拍照，但是布什夫妇在和最后几名客人拍照时看到了他们。

“Barbara Bush looked at me and said, ‘You weren’t in line,’ ” Ms. Compton recalled, “and I said, ‘Mrs. Bush, that was our Christmas present to you.’ ”

“芭芭拉·布什看着我说，‘你们没来拍照啊，’”康普顿女士回忆，“我说，‘布什女士，这就是我们送你们的圣诞礼物。’”