Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Soong moves "campaign" forward

James Soong, PFP Chairman and former KMT heavyweight, announced his plans for his upcoming presidential campaign, naming an academic as Veep.....
During a press conference this morning, James Soong (宋楚瑜), chairman of the People First Party (PFP), announced that Lin Ruey-shiung (林瑞雄), an epidemiology specialist, would be his running mate. The 72-year-old Lin is an emeritus professor of Public Health at the National Taiwan University (NTU).

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The PFP is reportedly planning to mobilize 2,000 volunteers and set up 400 booths throughout Taiwan for its signature drive. The PFP reportedly hopes that each of its city and county chapters could collect the signatures of at least 5 percent of the local electorate.
Soong picked another NTU doctor, Chang Chau-hsiung, in 2000 for his independent presidential bid. The selection of a 72 year old medical researcher suggests that Soong's presidential bid isn't very serious.

258,000 signatures will be needed to put Soong on the ballot, according to the rules. But Soong insists he won't come in unless he gets 1 million.

The CNA report, which is more detailed, notes as I have that Soong is not the advantage for the DPP that everyone thinks, with a support base that appears to draw fairly evenly from both parties. Remember that in order to win Tsai has to pick up all the independents -- if Soong eats some of those, it makes her task much harder.
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Daily Links:
  • Chinese loon attempts to disrupt pro-Taiwan rally in the US (video)
  • Taiwan to request F-35s (!). Next up: TAIWAN TO REQUEST TRIDENT MISSILES
  • I've been hearing rumors that the KMT is going after small businesses that donate to the DPP with tax audits, but this is the first I've heard it made public. Could be true, could just be paranoia.
  • Bushman's stolen car is recovered!
  • MOFA says it is protesting over WHO's use of Taiwan, province of China. Remember when getting into the WHA was a major coup for international space? Actually, it squeezed Taiwan even further into the Chinese box.

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1 comment:

RollingWave said...

Heh, if we're to ask for the mmon the only thing we really need is a single tactical nuke head. hell we'd have had it by the early 80s if it weren't for a certain foreign spy agency that startswith C and ends of an A.