Who do you think came out on top? I think in these things the closing statement is what matters most and Ma’s was much stronger. Hsieh used his entire three minutes to make swipes at Ma. He didn’t explain his plan and vision for Taiwan, and where he wants to take its people. In his close, Ma took the high road. He didn’t take one shot at Hsieh, but spoke directly to the Taiwanese about what he feels the issues most affecting them are.
I also noticed that Frank Hsieh never answered the allegations Ma raised about Frank Hsieh’s associates charged with corruption, but just turned the question back on Ma. Sure, was Ma indicted, but he was also acquitted. I think only one Frank Hsieh associate has had his name exonerated. Hsieh also brought up the green card issue and used it to try to cast aspersions on Ma’s loyalty to Taiwan. I wonder how the huge numbers of green card holders in Taiwan, both present and former, will react to that.
The format sucked. Candidates were only given 90 seconds to answer questions. You can’t give a coherent response on the difficult issues facing Taiwan in 90 seconds. No doubt pundits and the media will criticize Ma and Hsieh as spouting rhetoric, but the format was designed for soundbites, not substance.
All in all, it was fairly even, but I give the edge to Ma, primarily on the strength of his close (not that it was particularly strong, but Hsieh’s was so awful).
Also, Hsieh had a couple of rowdy knuckleheads in the audience hooting and hollering approval for his responses. I guess they were there to make it seem like Hsieh was carrying the crowd. Problem was, it was the same two idiots all afternoon. Another point against Hsieh.
Ma performed like a politician and stuck to laying out his views. Hsieh performed like a sleazy guttersnipe and spent most of his time attacking Ma, losing yet another opportunity to look like presidential material and losing yet another opportunity to put forward his views.
At least, that seems to be the consensus in my office right now. I didn’t bother watching it.
I listened for half an hour, and Ma was head and shoulders better and more presidential than Hsieh. He spoke very fluently, coherently, relevantly, confidently and persuasively on all the issues addressed in that time, and there was very real substance to what he said. Hsieh, in contrast, was stuttering, rambling, incoherent and vague, and barely seemed to be answering the questions at all.
I was almost feeling sorry for Hsieh by the trime I switched off the radio, because I felt he had been utterly humiliated and was painfully aware of it.
Hsieh is surprisingly inarticulate for a supposedly hot-shot lawyer and rabble-rousing politico. Every sentence is irritatingly peppered with ah’s, hah’s and nay’s, and his speech is constantly broken by awkward pauses and uncompleted statements. It is very hard indeed to listen to him and try to extract any sensible meaning from what he is saying.
I believe that no one but the most blinkered waishengren-hating greenie could possibly vote for Hsieh after listening to or watching that debate. Ma is truly an outstanding candidate for the presidency, by far the best ever to run for that position in Taiwan. Hsieh is out of his depth running for anything higher than office in local government.
I had been nervous about the debates because someone was telling me that Hsieh is a more of a master debater than Ma, and would win as a result. Turns out Ma was the more cunning linguist and as a result came on top.
Ma is also literally half a head and shouder taller than Hsieh, but strangly, they appeared to be the same height after they got behind their respective lecterns. Somebody’s favoritism was obviously at work.
follow user ricky200708 in youtube. He seems to have broken the long debate into parts with no commercial interuptions.
It was a conspiracy because Ma was labelled as number 2 on stage. Not to mention the MC spoke some inarticulate language in the beginning…
But all kidding aside I thought the “same sex marriage” question to be most elightening to how each candidate would approach a problem that seem uncomfortable to both of them. Ma definitely looked more articulate in passing buck that there is no global consensus on what to do socially, legally, etc. Hsieh looked like he wanted to vomit and no Taiwanese in their right mind would ever want enter a same sex marriage.
I thought the “local economy” question to be illustrate a difference between the two candidate. Hsieh just wanted to reduce income tax to 17%. Ma stated he wanted to stimulate the economy and control cost on government controlled supplies.
When asked by the student to bring up good points about their opponents. I thought Ma was much better, bringing up his experiences with Hsieh in college. Hsieh unfortunately was not able to keep up the act.
There suppose to 2 more of these debates? Hsieh really needs to pick up his public speaking skills.
Well, I cannot understand why Hsieh doesn’t bring the fact that the KMT didn’t do a single thing in the Legislature (most of the things that Ma propose now could have been long passed the KMT, if they had the will to do the change)… This is KMT’s biggest mistake and could give light to the anti-development tactics the KMT uses in order to make the government look bad.
Anyway, they will have 2 more debates, and I still didn’t read much about it to fully understand it.
Actually four more-five in total. What in hell are they thinking? There should be no more than three. One in Taipei, one in Taichung and one in Kaohsiung.
Five debates is just overkill. And no one will watch after the first one anyway.
Granted,TVBS is a blue station, but their viewer poll indicates 43% thought Ma performed better in the debate, as opposed to 28% for Frank Hsieh (what debate were the Hsieh supporters watching?). A poll before the debate showed that 21% thought Ma would win, while 33% thought Hsieh would.
《辯論誰表現比較好？》 Who performed better in the debate?
辯論前2/22 辯論後2/2
pre-debate post-debate
馬英九 21% 43%
Ma
謝長廷 33% 28%
Hsieh
《假如明天投票，你會投給誰？》 If the election was tomorrow, for whom would you vote?
辯論前2/22 辯論後2/24
pre-debate post debate
馬蕭配 53% 49%
Ma/Siew
長昌配 31% 29%
Hsieh/Tseng
《誰提出的政策較符合您的需要？》 Whose policies were more in line with your needs?
Granted, the whole “Your wife didn’t return books to the library in college!” thing does come across as kind of desperate, but I don’t think we can count Hsieh out just yet.
I’ve yet to speak to one person who is not hardcore green that is planning to vote for Hsieh, but I’ve spoken to a few that are not hardcore blue that are planning to vote for Ma. I figure the hardcore on each side more or less cancel each other out in terms of vote numbers. Of the non-political people, it seems that they are mostly voting for Ma and they don’t really rate Hsieh’s chances.
Of course, things can change here at the drop of a hat, so who knows how things will look in 2 weeks.
I don’t understand how this pat-on-the-back thing is a kind of one-upmanship in the debate (“eat the other guy’s tofu”). Right after their perfunctory handshake, Hsieh stuck out his left hand to prevent Ma from patting him on the back. Ma said to him, Don’t worry, I’m not going to pat you. Later on Hsieh said he was not repelling him but was trying to give Ma a high-five.
I know I’ve lost a little interest, mostly because things are basically happening in a pretty predictable way. Hsieh’s camp accuses Ma of being American, British, and always Chinese. Ma’s camp subtly reminds people that Hsieh’s hands might not be clean. Nothing really registers on either side, because just about everyone is sufficiently cynical about politics.
They might as well have the vote tomorrow, because it seems doubtful anyone’s going to be doing any convincing over the next 2 weeks.
Anyone attend any large scale campaign rallies this year/2004/2000, and can give us a comparison? I’m wondering if the passion is still there.
IMO, Taiwan needs someone with the professionalism that Ma can bring to the position.
Hsieh project an image, which is very important to Taiwan at this time, of a sleazy grubby backroom wanna-be crook. Big grin and hands out for the envelope.
My dinero is on Ma…and IMO again, this would be a much better choice for the island.
I would only be concerned if Ma patted me in the butt or grabbed me the crotch…
only because my SO would ask me never to wash those parts of me ever again.