But I'll need some assistants to look after the zoo
I can't see nobody better so I guess you'll just have to do...
Sting - "Rock Steady"
Ichiro Ozawa has decided to come forth in support of Minister of Economics, Trade and Industry and noted weeper Kaieda Banri for the post of leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, or so NHK tells us (en). Too bad it comes only after a frantic two days of Ozawa and his sidekick, former Prime Minister Hatoyama Yukio, scrambling to find someone else to run against Maehara Seiji other than the six already declared opponents of the former foreign minister.
It should make Kaieda feel just great to know that he comes in as the default choice, right after "None of the Above."
If Ozawa's backing of Kaieda is just a stunt, concocted so that Ozawa can claim a moral victory as Kaieda wins in the first round on Monday, only to lose to Maehara in the runoff second round, I am going to be mightily sick.
Given Ozawa's massive sense of entitlement, isn't the simplest explanation that he and Hatoyama were making candidates compete to offer them the best deal, and Kaieda caved? The whole we-may-support-yet-another-candidate stuff would just have been bluff to try and force further concessions from the existing runners.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Janne that it's all irrelevant, though. Whoever gets elected now will be prime minister for a few months at best, achieve nothing, and be consigned to a historical footnote. Maehara should have let someone else take up the poisoned chalice this time, and waited until next year to make his move.