Ma, Su face internal rivals in race to 2008

The Taipei Times reported last week on new KMT chairman Ma and his DPP counterpart Su:

In a bid to cement their role as leading contenders for the 2008 presidential elections, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) chairman-elect, and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) will have to go all out to ensure their parties emerge victorious in the year-end elections. For both men, those polls will be a war that they cannot afford to lose.

What's Soong going to do? That will be crucial for Ma. As the TT pointed out the other day, Ma did well in the KMT elections in the southern towns of Taliao and Fengyuan. The TT was right in noting that those are mainlander strongholds. However, during the 2000 election, they went heavily for Soong, which says that Ma's support in the south may depend in part on Soong's attitude during the 2008 election.

[Taiwan]