After the comedy two years ago of Donald Tsang Yam-kuen running against himself to replace the failed Tung Chee-hwa, we're now seeing the sequel - Alan Leong Kah-kit trying to run against a chief executive who won't even walk up to the starting line.
Mr Tsang already has the March election sewn up, thanks to Beijing's patronage, and doesn't really need to campaign against Mr Leong. But he knows he must, to make the election look like a real contest.
He hopes that beating Mr Leong in a fight he can't lose will finally win him a public mandate to govern, ending the taunts that he's just a Beijing stooge.
But even as a sure-win candidate, Mr Tsang still wants to play a careful hand. He won't formally say yet if he'll seek re-election. This is not for the sake of suspense - we all know he will - but to maximise his advantage. By waiting until closer to election day, he believes his campaign message will have greater impact. Not only that, a formal declaration now means all election expenses must start coming out of the legally allowed limit of HK$9.5 million.
Mr Leong is burning up dollars on a wasted campaign. His jabs at Mr Tsang's performance as chief executive have not drawn the blood needed to excite the people or the media. Maybe he likes his image as a nice guy in tailored suits, but meekness is not a political virtue. Mr Leong needs to stop hurling cream puffs and start hitting where it hurts.
Not that Mr Tsang is a gifted politician who knows how to electrify a crowd. A life-long bureaucrat rather than a natural leader, he is the accidental chief executive who believes in being practical rather than passionate. That is a common position for those who know only how to govern with rule books, not with vision.
But the people are ready for more than robotic leaders. Along with the realism, they want idealism. Ten years into the handover, Hong Kong deserves a leader who dares to govern with a difference, someone who is pragmatic when necessary, but who also dares to dream.
