Unfortunately, voting for presidential candidates (in any country) is like kissing all the frogs in a pond, hoping that one of them will magically turn into a prince.

It is only natural that the public should be reluctant to kiss Mr. Lee.

Yes, he was mayor of Seoul, but it seems from his comments in the press that the Hyundai culture is still deeply engrained in his thinking. (See article recently translated on Korea Beat.)

I fear that Lee will take the Ross Perot stance and try to be CEO of Korea - he’s said as much. The problem with running a country vs. running a business is that legislators and bureaucrats do not equal employees and citizens do not equal customers. I’m not sure that Lee or his compatriots appreciate this.

Moon Kook-hyun, an experienced former CEO of Yuhan-Kimberly Ltd. is in the presidential race, except, unlike the other candidates, he has the most meaningful qualifications and background of any candidate yet.

Because, of course, building Hyundai Construction into one Korea’s largest corporations and being a popular and successful mayor of a city of 11 million people hardly counts as “qualifications.”

I sympathize with your irritation but I actually did an internet search for material on Mr. Moon. I only quoted that one older Chosun Ilbo article as a point of discussion. The guy is not bad at all and what I have read on him is better than what I have found on Mr. Lee.

I do not have much appreciation for Hyundai corporate culture either since, at best, it is much like a day old fish in the moonlight; it, at once, shines yet stinks.

But just for the unnecessary snarkiness.

I still think it was a thoughtless and naive post. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with advocation. IWSHIM lays out his cards quite clearly above, and who can fault him? But the original post was dripping in schoolboy adoration and all of it based on something he read in the ye ol’ chosun.

You’ll just have to excuse me for calling a spade a spade.

Park Geun Hye was my choice and by default Lee Min Nok will be my next choice as I think he will do the least damage.

A lot of crap is said that will not fly in a primary and now we will see real choices.

Those who govern least govern best. This country is consistently mortgaging a future built on bigger government. The public is not suckers and in the end they will make the right choices.

I will support Lee Min Bok all the way but I will never tell him he deserves to win because the opposition is amateurish. Those part of the pig manure voting public are something that should be ignored. Mr. Lee needs to focus on his public support and earn their respect not by name calling or diminishing those who challenge him. The primary is over, the infighting is over, and now is the time to a singular message out – time to do better. Anything other than a positive is a negative – stay on message!

The people who post here sometimes can bend the ear of those who will have influence in government. That being the case do not use words like amateur to substantiate meaningless ad hominem attacks.

Amateur? Does that mean there should be a professional school for politicians?

Seriously though, as Tom mentions, Hyundai is a larger corporate concern than the Korean division of Kimberly-Clark but, considering the level of corruption (read the news) and lack of vision in Hannara, would a former Hyundai executive, fronted by Hannara, be good for Korea’s future or just a lesser evil (as Tom implies)?

Based upon his record, I doubt that Mr. Lee will suddenly develop insight and wisdom.

But more important, I don’t think this nation can benefit by having another amateur government leader. Moon has never been elected to the Korean equivalent of dog catcher and now he thinks he can lead a national government without government experience of any kind. To me, no matter what his track record may be, that kind of thinking red flags a potential nutter who is just waiting to be exposed. I just hope we don’t see that exposure coming from within the Blue House. We have been down that path too many times during these past five years.

And if I may make one, last point, it would be that Moon is waiting for the current crowd of yo-yos to come over and make him their candidate. Should that happen, Korea could not only elect to the ROK presidency an inexperienced, starry-eyed executive from a medium-sized company, but also reinstall a whole slew of hangers-on that we are all too well familiar.

Be afraid. Be very afraid!