That’s not me saying that. A survey conducted by Research Panel Korea asked 26,586 people: if you could re-elect any president, which one would you choose? Roh Moo-Hyun crushed the competition, garnering 43% of the response. Those who chose Roh said that he was a good communicator with the ordinary people, and his good policies like reforming the Prosecutor’s Office was never fully carried out.
Kim Dae-Jung gained 12% of the response, making this a rather strong showing for the progressives. Park Chung-Hee won 10%, and the rest hovered around 1-2% of the response. Incredibly, Chun Doo-Hwan earned more votes (322) than Kim Yeong-Sam (209). Park Chung-Hee led the same survey last year.
Perhaps representing the wisest group of people, 24% of the respondents said: “None.”
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow. Usually a “swan dive” would indicate falling approval ratings.
Yeah, another example of death being a good career move. Not sure if that is an indication of sympathy or short term memory loss. Either way, odd, considering what how ineffective he was.
Didn’t want to go there, so thanks for saying that I guess.
Angusmack #2, I like it…tanned, rested, and ready…there is an old quote attributed to many about “a statesman is a politician who has been dead for 15 years.”
I suppose, with the GNP thinking about changing its name, that the progressives should change back to Millennium Democratic Party, considering Roh’s popularity?
MDP was Kim Dae Jung, Roh went for the nationalistic/national bank themed Uri Party.
LMB gets the blame for the poor state of the global economy, but he has done a very good job leading South Korea out of some serious mess. The number of crisis that came his way, and the number of times he had to bail his government out, is almost unfair.
#5 – and the DUPies are promising to continue the Nationalist legacy. They’ve promised the first order of their priority: cancel the FTA with the US, and start a new social free welfare state without raising taxes. I’m sure that will go well. Right.
Increased welfare without raising taxes may be possible, but the funds will have to be diverted from other projects. That’s essentially what the new Seoul government is trying to do. At least the voters will have the advantage of seeing how that plan is working out before voting for it on a national level. Personally, I think it’s impossible.
I think the DUP will back down on their promise to cancel/completely renegotiate the KORUS FTA as the election gets closer. Most moderate voters will notice that despite the name change, they are the party that negotiated the deal that included most of the contentious clauses they now criticize. Plus, I think the DUP underestimates the amount of the electorate that want to see the deal go through, be it for trade benefits or maintaining relations with the US.
Gyeonggi Doh #5, thanks for the correction, can’t believe I would mix up those parties and leaders.
Roh was MDP when he was elected in 2002. He was Uri after some time (I forget how much) as president.
Seth #10, thanks for the clarification of the correction. I guess this drives home the point about these political parties constantly changing their names…
I guess that means South Carolina Republicans AREN’T the dumbest voters in the world.
“Increased welfare without raising taxes may be possible, but the funds will have to be diverted from other projects.”
- or more likely scenario would be they will raise the deficit to earn mass popular support in the beginning, then quickly turn Korea into a debtor nation. Once this effect wears off in the long run as the bill comes due, they’ll have some serious answering to do and face the wrath of the electorate who will be regretting how foolish they were choosing this party.
“I think the DUP will back down on their promise to cancel/completely renegotiate the KORUS FTA as the election gets closer”
I disagree. These dupes have a core of anti-American party supporters. It will be political suicide to back down before the elections. They’ll wait until they are elected, then I predict they’ll clumsily approach the US and ask for another renegotiation (to appease their supporters and show them that it’s not just rhetoric), insulting and crossing the Americans. But they will fail, as expected, then they’ll back down because they won’t have the guts to do what they promised. They’ll try to get out of it by blaming the Americans instead.
I got mixed feeling on this. In part, I’m hoping the DUP gets elected so that Koreans can find out for themselves what a disaster it is to experiment with a leftist party filled with many weird radicals. But on the other hand, I would hate to see a country full of potential and dynamism, turn into a basket case and get left behind other countries.
And oh by the way, if and when DUP gets elected, we can kiss the strong Korea-US cooperation of the past 5 years good bye. It will be back to 2005 with the same old anti-American rhetoric, and arguing between US-Korea over USFK issues. Then I wouldn’t really blame the Americans if they wanted to leave Korea for once and for all.
Well, NORTH Korea is ruled by a dead president, so maybe re-electing Roh will open a new chapter in the reunification story.
And Roh hasn’t said anything dumb since May 2009. How many politicians anywhere on earth can say that?
#15: Heh.
#14: Not letting a good Rahmian crisis go to waste, with any luck once the DUPes win and ramp up the inevitable anti-Yankism Big Barry will send them a big “foxtrot oscar” and begin sending GIs home. Of course, I won’t be holding my breath for that kind of outcome.
cm @ # 6: agreed in general, he was helped by an inflated boom in China but yes he wasn’t a disastrous President
In sentiment I agree with the 43%. Most politicians are better when they’re dead, they’re far less capable of causing trouble when they’ve shed their mortal coil. I think that Roh was a fine example of what politicians should aim for. Though I do think throwing yourself off a cliff might be rather messy. Others politicians should try to follow his lead in a slightly less gruesome manner, so that whoever has the task of dealing with the body doesn’t have such a grisly experience.
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