With 65 days to go before Taiwan's local elections, the Kuomintang (KMT) is bogged down in candidate-coordination disputes in several counties and cities. If the blue camp cannot open up a new front, the prospects for both the year-end elections and the 2028 presidential race look poor.

• Internal coordination has failed in Changhua and Hsinchu counties, the blue-white alliance has collapsed, and even the party headquarters' media coverage has shrunk sharply.
• Political scientist Niu Tse-hsun suggests using the meeting between Trump and Xi Jinping as an entry point for a counterattack, hammering the green camp for blindly siding with the United States and never daring to say no to Washington.
• The KMT can use the "peace card" to counter the DPP's anti-China line, and echo Lu Shiow-yen's call for Lai Ching-te to convene a national affairs conference.
• New Taipei is the tightest race, with Su Chiao-hui leading Lee Si-chuan by a razor-thin margin; however, 75 percent of Taiwan People's Party supporters lean toward Lee Si-chuan, giving the blue and white camps a combined edge over the greens.
• Lai Ching-te publicly praised KMT Taoyuan Mayor Chang San-cheng as "national governance talent," a remark read as an attempt to drive a wedge into blue-camp unity.

Outlook: With Taiwan's stock market closing in on the 50,000-point mark, the KMT's criticism that "Taiwan's foundations have rotted away" is a hard sell to voters. Unless the blue camp can come up with a new narrative, it will only find itself increasingly on the back foot as the campaign wears on.