Ma and Wang Spar on TV

Mayor Ma of Taipei and Wang Jin-pyng continued their quest for the KMT Party Chairmanship as the countdown toward the vote continues. David at Jujuflop, who has read the election as an insider-outsider struggle, garnered more support for his thesis in the form of comments from a KMT legislator who supports Ma:

KMT Legislator Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), who supports Ma, said this election was a "closed" or "internal" election that would rely on traditional organizational strength to mobilize voters, an area where Wang is strong.

Wu compared Ma with Wang, saying Ma had a good and clean image, a crucial asset if he runs in the 2008 presidential election that appeals to the electorate at large. Wang, on the other hand, had a network of friends who could get supporters to polling stations on Saturday.

A professor at one of the local universities agreed with this analysis, saying:

heng Tzu-leong, a professor in the Department of Advertising at National Chengchi University, said that the two candidates' commercials had a "me, too" quality to them. The feeling is one of "if my opponent has a commerical then I should have one too, and this shows that I'm not kidding around in my attempt to win the party chairmanship," the professor said.

"As far as the KMT political culture is concerned, the traditional personal networks have more impact on party members than commercials," Cheng said. "No one has really cared about the impact of commercials before."

[Taiwan]