Hung Hsiu-chu is now the KMT's nominee for president in 2016. I'm surprised, to say the least. Hung is obviously not the strongest candidate the party could have run; Eric Chu was that, but he didn't want and managed to refuse the nomination for reasons that still aren't clear and probably won't be for some time yet. Wang Jin-pyng did want the nomination, but Ma Ying-jeou apparently still has the authority in the party to block Wang's nomination. I kept expecting the party leadership to patch up their differences, put on their big boy pants and draft Chu to run. Instead, here they are with Hung. 

So, the KMT, already facing a tough fight to retain power, is now a real underdog in 2016 against Tsai Ing-wen, and the DPP (and certain deep-green commentators) can barely contain their glee. Some of the hotter heads are even predicting the permanent collapse of the KMT and a slide into irrelevance. That's really far-fetched: the KMT didn't disappear after it lost power in 2000, and there's even less reason to think it'll fade away now. At this point, I think it's quite possible the KMT could retain their majority in the legislature. I even think it's not inconceivable that Hung could actually beat Tsai. (More on that in a future post.) But I won't disagree that both tasks look significantly harder now for the KMT. 

Finally, on a programming note, now that I'm finally (close to) finished with a couple major summer projects, I'm  transitioning back to more regular blogging--on the upcoming election, of course, but also on many other important things that get drowned out in the incessant commentary on the campaigns. Watch this space...