Welcome To Normal.(Nations to Watch)(Kim Dae Ho and Lee Myung Bak)

Byline: B. J. Lee

South Korean voters are shifting away from the idealistic extremes to embrace a new pragmatism.

Five years ago, Kim Dae Ho was feeling upbeat. South Korea had just advanced to the World Cup semifinals, and its 7 percent GDP growth rate had made it one of the world's most exciting emerging markets. Ordinary Koreans like Kim, a swim coach in Seoul, were filled with pride. So when it came time to pick a president that year, Kim chose a liberal idealist, Roh Moo Hyun, who used sweeping rhetoric to call for a new era of "participatory government."

Five years on, Kim had decided to pick pragmatism this time. In the Dec. 19 election, that meant Lee Myung Bak of the opposition Grand National Party, a former Seoul mayor and business executive, who -- unlike the chaotic and high-flying Roh -- is down to earth, no-nonsense, and promised tangible results. That became especially appealing when South Korea's economy slowed recently, with growth dropping to 5 percent annually (anemic by local standards) and youth unemployment hitting double digits. Lee, who has been accused of corruption -- charges he denies -- may not be pure, but he has a good record of getting things done. That's something Roh never quite managed.

According to the latest surveys, Lee was expected to win with 40 percent of the vote, well ahead of Roh's liberal successor, Chung Dong Young, and an ultraconservative independent. Lee had dominated the polls for more than a year, reflecting Roh's dismal approval ratings, due largely to South Korea's swooning economy and his incompetent management style. But Lee's ascendancy also reflects a major shift among Korean voters away from the ideological flanks that long dominated politics here and toward the pragmatic middle. As South Korea's contentious democracy has matured, locals have come to care more about problem solving than about angry regional, generational or ideological divides. Thus Korean elections are gradually becoming like American ones, says Kim Hyung Joon, a political scientist at Seoul's Myongji University. "Those who win the middle ground" now carry the day.

That's just the spot that Lee targeted. Though his party is known for its strong conservative streak and traditionally advocated small government and a tough stance toward North Korea, Lee offered a more flexible ...