Aso Taro is the new president of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). As expected, he won in a landslide, receiving roughly two-thirds of all votes (351 of 527 votes).
He received 217 of 386 parliamentary votes to 64 for Yosano Kaoru, 46 for Koike Yuriko, 36 for Ishihara Nobuteru, and 21 for Ishiba Shigeru.
After rejecting him in 2007 and 2006 (and 2001, when he finished a distant third), the LDP has decided to entrust its fate at a critical juncture in its history to Mr. Aso, a conservative-populist maverick, grandson of Yoshida Shigeru, Catholic, and onetime Olympian, with a tendency to make embarrassing and insensitive verbal gaffes.
Both the LDP and Mr. Aso (discussed here) may come to regret their embrace.
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