The Marmot’s Hole

Lee Hoi-chang enjoyed his post annoucement bump in the polls last week.  Now the struggle to overtake Lee Myung-bak really begins. 

Here is this week’s happy little poll from Realmeter:

1. Lee Myung-bak 39.1% (up 3.1% from last week)
2. Lee Hoi-chang 21.0% (down 3.8%)
3. Chung Dong-young 11.8% (down 4.1%)
4. Moon Kook-hyun 7.1% (up 2.5%)
5. Kwon Young-ghil 2.8% (up 1.4%)
6. Rhee In-jae 2.8% (up 1.7%)
7. Others/Undecided 15.4%

While Lee Hoi-chang’s candidacy took wind from everyone’s sails last week, all the candidates have recovered somewhat this week… except for Chung Dong-young. 

Park Guen-hye’s support of Lee Myung-bak takes away any political cover for GNP officials who are thinking about jumping over to Lee Hoi-chang, which makes the laters job that much more difficult.  The deal Park likely got for her support will also strengthen her within the party.

Despite being the leading progressive candidate, Chung is really starting to look like the sick man in this race.  His handling of merger negotiations with the Democratic party certainly didn’t help.  Rank-and-file United New Democratic Party members balked at the deal he worked out with the Democrat’s Rhee In-jae on Monday, forcing a renegotiation.

Moon Kook-hyun must be looking better all the time to progressives desperate to find their white knight.  At this point, I wouldn’t even count Rhee In-jae out if the party merger goes through.