In the New York Sun, Liz Peek says America needs a Lee Myung-bak. BTW, not to nitpick, but Lee led Hyundai Construction, not Hyundai Motors.
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In the New York Sun, Liz Peek says America needs a Lee Myung-bak. BTW, not to nitpick, but Lee led Hyundai Construction, not Hyundai Motors.
12 Comments
It sounds like Korea has produced a star.
. . . either that or Americans have a problem with self-esteem and competent leadership just now.
It seems that China is the new America and America is the new Korea. If Korea could manage to be *Korea* that would be the best news yet (I mean that in the best sense).
The US needs a pro-business president?
But, isn’t that the problem with George W. Bush (well, that and his Christian fundamentalism)?
The only candidate that would come close to resembling LMB would be Mike Bloomberg.
What America needs is a Jewish president.
OK, Marmot’s crowd don’t like Lee.
Well I like Lee. You may not agree with all his policies, but most of his policies really do stand out from the past. For instance:
Lee’s policy on Korea’s small/medium sized companies:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/JA05Dg01.html
Lee’s policy on foreign investment:
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/ww.....16710.html
Lee’s foreign policy with America:
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/ww.....16719.html
Lee’s policy on the education:
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/ww.....16726.html
It’s as if this guy is intending to change everything around completely. And I think he really will do them too.
Well, I think it’s better to say some of Marmot’s crowd don’t like Lee. Others like myself know full-well his many and serious shortcomings and still like him.
I blame the American primary system which habitually puts in front of us boring, career politicians way too tied to special interests and the interests of their own party instead of vigorous, out-of-the-box, go getters who want to be leaders not just presidents.
Also, that article reminded me of something Michael Breen once said:
“Once they get our attention, you can find that there is much one can learn from the Koreans.”
“You may not agree with all his policies, but most of his policies really do stand out from the past.”
You do remember that you’re talking about a guy whose main campaign promise was designed to appeal to those nostalgic of the Park Chung Hee years, right?
#7,
It’s a democracy. Don’t blame the system, blame the voters. You could have elected Ross Perot, Ralph Nader, and even Frank Zappa…but you didn’t.
# 9,
A democracy? You have a very narrow view of what a democracy may be. Unless you think that a few small states effectively CHOOSING a major party’s Presidential candidate is “democratic.”
Besides, not all “democracies” have a primary system. Most parliamentary democracies do not for example.
Your #10 doesn’t support your #7, WangKon. In parliamentary systems, we can’t vote directly for our “presidents” (prime ministers, that is). We can only vote for the party representative in our own district. Then the leader of the party with the most districts automatically becomes the PM.
And there are some like myself, who are taking a wait and see approach regarding him.