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Apr 10, 2008

Slow day

Nothing really happening today, except the rift, large between Hsieh and Chen is becoming more obvious. I guess it only makes sense that after the election they'd start to blame each other for the loss.

Written by 阿牛 on 4/10/2008

2 comments:

Eli said...

I just wonder how much influence Chen had in the campaign, and how much pressure there was on Hsieh to go in a specific direction with his campaign. Obviously, he has to take some of the blame for the loss, but it seems to me that he was put in an impossible position, after months of Chen running the show, the GIO constantly hammering the UN for Taiwan message), and the education ministry with its incessant Chiang Kai-shek. You mentioned below that the DPP should have done a better job courting the Hakka and aboriginal populations. I remember Hsieh's first choice for running mate was Yeh Chu-lan; then it seemed like he was pressured into picking Su. Now, Yeh certainly remained a public face for Hsieh, but campaigning is not the same symbolically as becoming the potential VP. I have nothing against Su, and he is obviously great on the campaign trail, but did the benefit of picking Su outweigh the the benefit of a Yeh pick? Was there such a big block of green support that would have disappeared if Hsieh had not picked Su?

How would things have been different if Chen had not replaced Yu Shyi-kun as DPP chairman, but instead one of Hsieh's surrogates had? Just some thoughts (and questions).

April 11, 2008 at 11:50:00 AM GMT+8
阿牛 said...

I think the Su pick was more about DPP factionalism. Since the end of the formal factions within the party, it seems factions gravitate toward the party heavyweights as leaders. Making Su the running mate was probably mostly to please the emerging Su faction, and A-bian seemed to lean that way himself .

It's not easy to say what Chen's role in the last two months was, because we can't see behind the curtain, but on the whole it was apparently minimal. He seemed to have decided to give Hsieh two months to run any campaign he wanted.

Also hard to say who could have become chairman other than Chen at that time. Again, more about controlling the party's factions I think than anything else.

April 11, 2008 at 1:05:00 PM GMT+8

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