James Soong... again

One interesting element is the accusations of jumping ship from many KMT to other options. As per the talk shows, they are pulling a Soong: since they are not given the chance within the ranks, they leave.

People have a shorter memory span than goldfish!

I don’t really agree. There’s been a monumental shift in Soong’s strategy from before. He used to position himself (like the New Party) as the bluer-than-blue candidate, but is now trying to eschew “green-blue” politics in favor of Soong-centric politics. His speech touched on many of the issues that young people care about today, showing he has a far better understanding of what the general populace is thinking than Hung ever will. Among these:

[ul]1: “blackbox”[/ul]
[ul]2: implied opposition to curriculum changes[/ul]
[ul]3: a really intense push to link his name to Ko Wen-je[/ul]
[ul]4: picking out the best parts of Hung’s and Tsai’s political personas and adopting them for himself[/ul]
[ul]5: talking a lot about the future, hope, and the “next generation” (when’s the last time any blue candidate looked forward instead of backward?)[/ul]

Well I don’t have a very high opinion of him as a politician, just a speaker. Others may feel the same way as me. It’s ironic for a man who used to head the government propaganda office to be soapboxing about transparency and accountability! And that irony is not lost on most voters, nor is the contradiction of his infamous “no regional languages in schools” policy vs. his willingness to greet everyone on stage yesterday in Taiyu and Hakka.

Soong is well past his prime. If 2000 was a Soong-Lien ticket, they would have won, hands down. Unfortunately for him, he’s been out of mainstream politics for 15 years at this point, and people remember him as “that governor of Taiwan Province before they shut it down” rather than an up-and-coming candidate. He surely won’t win, but in my opinion he’s the smartest candidate in any presidential race of late (if not necessarily the best candidate).

How many Taiwanese are actually ready to cast their
votes for a FEMALE president on election day?
The Taiwanese are not immune to male chauvinism.
Voting for a female president may be a hard pill to
swallow, especially when both female candidates have
literally next to no executive experience running a
county or city…

Soong is the only viable MALE presidential candidate.
I suspect that’s part of the reason that he decided to
run.(on top of the fact that the KMT candidate is
not doing so hot)

People can say all they want when polled prior to
elections. Heck, I have never answered any polls
truthfully in the last 49 years. (online, in-person,
phone, mail)

FurTrader, you’re right about polls – they didn’t tell us much about the surprise DPP landslide in 2014 – but I think you overestimate chauvinism when it comes to Taiwanese politics. But we’re both just speaking on our gut instincts here.

How many Taiwanese are actually ready to cast their
votes for a FEMALE president on election day?
The Taiwanese are not immune to male chauvinism.
Voting for a female president may be a hard pill to
swallow, especially when both female candidates have
literally next to no executive experience running a
county or city…

Soong is the only viable MALE presidential candidate.
I suspect that’s part of the reason that he decided to
run.(on top of the fact that the KMT candidate is
not doing so hot)

People can say all they want when polled prior to
elections. Heck, I have never answered any polls
truthfully in the last 49 years. (online, in-person,
phone, mail)[/quote]I really don’t think gender is an issue at all.

Back to topic, Soong running again just shows how much of a joke Taiwan’s political scene is. It’s pathetic tbh.

Care to elaborate?

After all these years, an old man who used to be a supporter of the decades-long autocracy, are running for the president for the 3rd time(or 4th, if you count the 2004 one as well), and is still able to attract quite some spotlight…Idk, that just feels sad imo.

And I saw this on Facebook:

That’s just disturbing.

Not that I’m surprised or shocked though. Taiwan’s elections have always been like clown shows…with Soong being one of the oldest ones.

That’s a standard Hunan consonant shift. They call Hunan “Fulan.”

After all these years, an old man who used to be a supporter of the decades-long autocracy, are running for the president for the 3rd time(or 4th, if you count the 2004 one as well), and is still able to attract quite some spotlight…Idk, that just feels sad imo.
.[/quote]

Soon is not that old… Ronald Reagan was almost as old when he became POTUS.
He turned out to be the greatest American POTUS in the entire 20th century. :popcorn:
(at least that what someone tweeted back in 1982)

If someone can make a great leader, what difference does his/her age and gender
make? (not endorsing anyone in particular)

After all these years, an old man who used to be a supporter of the decades-long autocracy, are running for the president for the 3rd time(or 4th, if you count the 2004 one as well), and is still able to attract quite some spotlight…Idk, that just feels sad imo.
.[/quote]

Soon is not that old… Ronald Reagan was almost as old when he became POTUS.
He turned out to be the greatest American POTUS in the entire 20th century. :popcorn:
(at least that what someone tweeted back in 1982)

If someone can make a great leader, what difference does his/her age and gender
make? (not endorsing anyone in particular)[/quote]
And then, during his second term Reagan’s mind was so gone that Nancy was making most of the important decisions, some in consultation with her astrologer.

The deep blue in him still came out with that talk of being descendants of the yellow emperor and ending the speech with a call to “我們中國人”. I don’t think even Hung did that at the KMT party conference last month. It will be interesting to see him and the PFP generally try to reposition themselves from being on the extreme end of the blue/green unification/independence spectrum to a moderate party absorbing disaffected bentu KMT faction.

Not as much as disaffected bentu from KMT but ambitious bentu from the KMT. Soong’s got the money, the connections to make things happen.

That’s a standard Hunan consonant shift. They call Hunan “Fulan.”[/quote]

Thanks for that info. It’s been fun watching to these speeches just from an accent point of view. It’s great fun to see how these candidates struggle with their own heritage, diverse native languages, and Mandarin accents on this island :stuck_out_tongue:

The Internet is having a blast with the candidates, all right

Soong does an ad for volcanic mud face wash

As has been said the man is the best politician in the current bunch

But would you buy a used car from the guy?

How many Taiwanese are actually ready to cast their
votes for a FEMALE president on election day?
The Taiwanese are not immune to male chauvinism.
Voting for a female president may be a hard pill to
swallow, especially when both female candidates have
literally next to no executive experience running a
county or city…

Soong is the only viable MALE presidential candidate.
I suspect that’s part of the reason that he decided to
run.(on top of the fact that the KMT candidate is
not doing so hot)

People can say all they want when polled prior to
elections. Heck, I have never answered any polls
truthfully in the last 49 years. (online, in-person,
phone, mail)[/quote]

I agree. Soong’s populist campaign will take away some pan-green votes as well. Rural folk fondly remember him handing out the funds when he was governor. Holko chauvinists may vote for him as the sole male candidate :laughing: He certainly is the best of the bunch :2cents:

Chewdawg, you are out of touch. A popular ma got 51.6% in 2012, a Tsai shunned by the US got 45.63%, and Dirty old James got 2.77%.

That Hoklo chauvinism did not work out that well for Jimmy last time. I see him take a lot of light blue votes, Tsai would not have got anyway, he might take a little from Tsai, but not a lot.

In 2000 Jimmy was a hugely popular former governor of the Taiwan province, who spent a lot of government money and bribe money building up a patronage network hauling in the vote. Those networks are weaker today, 15 years is a long time, and a lot of the local factions have gone green.

I saw Jimmyboy start to falter in 2004, when his networks had weakened to the point where they could not help Lian and himself into the presidential palace, and no, they have not strengthened since.

We see some light-headedness right after he has declared, however all the old dirt will be dug up and used, both by the KMT and by the DPP, trust me. Especially the KMT sees themselves lose whatever light blues Hung would have kept onto, and they do not take perceived treachery like that lightly.

Jimmy Soong is a spent force.

Soong will get far more than 2.7%. Back in 2012, few KMTers defected to Soong because Ma stood a perfectly legitimate chance of winning. Hung doesn’t.