South Korea- Lee Nak-yon suffers early primary loss to progressive candidate Lee Jae-myung

[soryang]

2. Yes I agree

I see it that way too. But it's still early in the primary cycle and very early in the presidential campaign. I think my major concern is the slowness in the vaccine rollout and the current elevation or surge in covid cases. We can see the adverse impact the pandemic has had on Prime Minister Suga's administration in Japan.

If the economic circumstances in South Korea deteriorate, the current dissatisfaction among the young voters will increase from already high levels and could undermine democratic party prospects for the presidency. However, the right has related problems inside their party with the youth vote, because their main candidate, the apparently teflon covered curmudgeon Yoon Seok-yeol with all his legal baggage, is not popular among the young voters. For this reason Lee Jun-seok, the youngest party leader of a major political party, the conservative opposition People's Power Party, is feuding with Yoon, and wants to get rid of him, as their party's presidential candidate. So anything can happen. If Yoon bolted from the party and Oh Se-hoon, the new mayor of Seoul with celebrity like looks would have a good chance to take the youth vote with the right promises and beat Lee Jae-myung, who has the right economic agenda to get through this pandemic economic slog. Would Oh be willing to leave the powerful and prestigious office as Mayor of Seoul to take a chance at winning or losing the presidency? (Oh is a conservative of course, and in my view a superficial opportunist about a nanometer deep.)