Presidential elections are still two years away. While the KMT nomination is all but decided, there has been plenty of jockeying for position in the DPP to step into Chen Shui-bian’s shoes. Frank Hsieh was a frontrunner until his misfortunes as Premier, but it seems he still has plans:
Frank Hsieh is now ready to start a long undeclared campaign to bear the standard of the Democratic Progressive Party in 2008.
Finally out of Chen Shui-bian’s shadow, the former premier chose to take a trip away from Taiwan yesterday, leaving his lieutenants to make an informal announcement of the start of the drive to run for president.
His strategy seems to be to distance himself as far as possible from the DPP leadership (going as far as leaving the country for a while) in the hope/assumption that things will get so bad for them that they’ll need to nominate someone untainted by the hand of Chen.
We can, of course, expect an enjoyable (if not necessarily well thought out) campaign from Hsieh:
Pasuya Yao, former director-general of the Government Information Office, commands the young campaign office staff.
Praise be!
While I think Frank Hsieh may actually be a pretty good candidate for president, his weakest link is in his selection of subordinates. I thought Chen Chi-Mai (former acting Kaohsiung mayor) was incompetent enough, but now he’s appointed the clown Pasuya Yao to head his campaign? 2007 is going to be interesting…
It’s the Da Ge tradition. Being Da Ge doesn’t necessarily mean you get to be the mob boss that gets all the cash and tells everyone what to do (although in the case of Lee Deng-Hui… it was). Instead, you, in exchange for loyalty, become the patron of random young people, leaving room for figures like Pasuya precisely because selection is based on loyalty and not competence.
[quote]Pasuya Yao, former director-general of the Government Information Office, commands the young campaign office staff.[/quote]
David, I can’t even write, I am laughing so hard!
Unfortunately the KMRTC scandal may still come back to bite Hsieh on the ass (TT had article on it today). I think he has too much baggage and will have to wait another decade or so. Right now I’m calling the nomination for Su. Maybe the DPP can follow tradtion and put a woman in there, like Tsai Ing-wen, or even Hsiao Bi-khim.
Michael
Tsai Ying-wen! That’s a great idea. Who would Taiwan’s women voters choose over Ma Ying-jiou? Either a more attractive man (and there isn’t one in the running) or another woman! :notworthy:
So what I’m hearing from this is that there would be widespread support for Annette Lu … or have I misunderstood you all?
LMAO, crazy Annette for prez.. stop it, you’re killing me!
I thought Frank Hsieh would be a good presidential candidate given the fact that he is an experienced politicain.But i think it would be good for him to run as a mayor in Taipei given his mpopularity to counter the pan-blue candidate.
Perhaps Annette Lu or Premier Su would be a good presidential candidate.