The One With Aldacron

The big news in Korea today is that Lee Myung Bak was inaugurated as Korea’s 17th president.

“In the future that I envisage for Korea, the government serves its people with devotion, the economy is robust and the weak and marginalized are taken care of and labor and management collaborate in harmony. It will be a nation where the best and brightest are fostered and welcomed by the rest of the world and which attracts the world’s best and brightest to come and work. That is the vision of a Great Korea that my administration will work for,” he said in a 30-minute speech before 60,000 guests invited to the inaugural ceremony, including foreign VIPs.

He appealed to the people to move to an age of pragmatism and away from the era of ideology.

During his speech, he vowed to pursue a small government and big markets, active privatization, tax cuts, reduce government payrolls, positive, preventative welfare, reform education and pursue a strategic alliance with the United States and an Asia-focused diplomacy and pragmatic inter-Korean relations.

Right now, he’s fairly popular with the masses. If his presidency follows the precedents established by his predecessors, he’ll start to fall out of favor before too long. His plan for a cross-country canal has the potential to overshadow any other achievements during his administration. It may actually turn out to be the greatest thing since kimchi, much like his Cheonggye stream renovation project when he was Seoul mayor, but I rather expect it to be the One Big Mistake that wins him SubBush popularity.

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