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Updated Monday, March 17, 2008 0:00 am TWN, The China Post news staff

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Chen should avoid making trouble before he goes

It may also be possible that even in his last months in public office, President Chen cares more about himself and his own personal reputation than he does about the DPP’s chances for success in the next presidential election.

The outgoing president is clearly not content with the idea of quietly riding out his final days in office at the head of a caretaker government, even though his DPP was recently routed in January’s legislative elections in spite of his own vigorous campaigning efforts. Hsieh already suffers enough from having to bear the burden of representing the political party that has been in power for the last eight years.

With countless scandals and incidents of government malfeasance still lingering in the public mind, Hsieh has had to work hard to appear loyal yet not overly close to the incumbent leader.

His situation could be compared to that of former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who in 2000 attempted to distance himself from the personal scandals of outgoing President Bill Clinton while sharing credit for President Clinton’s successful economic policies.

Reports have said that Bill Clinton was disappointed with Gore!|s choice not to associate himself more closely with him, a factor that was partly blamed for Gore losing the electoral college vote to George W. Bush in spite of gaining more popular votes in the election.

Here in Taiwan, major governmental achievements by President Chen are so few and far between that it is hard to imagine what Hsieh could gain by associating himself closely with the outgoing president.

However, Chen has constantly been comparing himself with his would-be successor, creating endless headaches for Hsieh as he enters his last week of campaigning.

For the sake of having a clear choice in front of the voters on election day, we hope that President Chen can avoid doing things that deliberately or inadvertently harm the prospects of his own party’s nominee Hsieh.

With just two months left before he is to turn over the keys to his office, President Chen should quietly lead a caretaker administration and refrain from excessively injecting himself into the presidential election.

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