Is The KMT All Washed Up?

A few days after losing Taiwan's presidential election, defeated candidate Lien Chan convened leaders of his Kuomintang (KMT) party to figure out what had gone wrong. He demanded details about the assassination attempt that won a sympathy vote for incumbent Chen Shui-bian and called for an analysis of the party's options for requesting a recount. But most of all, he wanted to know why one of Taiwan's poorest counties, which had never failed to vote KMT, had turned against the party. The defectors of Yunlin helped Chen to his paper-thin victory margin and "stripped me of everything, even my underwear," said...