Here's another Yoon gaffe winner reported in the (conservative) Korea Herald:
The conservative opposition People Power Party‘s presidential candidate Yoon Seok-youl asked the rhetorical question on Wednesday if he is an “idiot” to take part in a TV debate with his liberal rival Lee Jae-myung. His remark has now become a viral meme in online communities.
At a campaign event on Wednesday in Andong, a conservative stronghold, Yoon dismissed a proposal by the candidate from the ruling Democratic Party to debate him.
“The Democratic Party candidate wants us to debate. Am I an idiot?” Yoon said to a cheering crowd.
Yoon's 'Am I an idiot?' remark turns into a viral meme, Korea Herald, By Yim Hyun-su, Dec 31, 2021
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20211231000439
There's a lot Yoon doesn't want to talk about. He's not very knowledgeable on the issues either. Without a teleprompter or handler to whisper answers into his ear when questioned, he appears hesitant, groping for answers and ill at ease. He continues to damage his campaign prospects as questions about his competence raise comparisons to former president Park Geun-hye who was impeached. The People’s Power Party candidate Yoon Seok-yeol’s lead in the polls has evaporated recently with recent unfavorable disclosures about his wife's academic resume misrepresentations and his mother in law's criminal convictions appearing in some South Korean news media. An authoritarian with no prior electoral experience, he is impolitic in his remarks. He is known as “gaffe a day” Yoon. He insults some group of people almost every time he opens his mouth. Declining to debate Lee Jae-myung as a campaign event, is something that is almost unheard of since the period of dictatorships.
A broad spectrum of recent polls confirm that Yoon's public statements in conjunction with family disclosures in the media have resulted in the loss of his lead in the polls, with the democratic candidate for president Lee Jae-myung now leading in the polls anywhere from 5 to 11 percent, depending on the source, well outside the typical 3.1 percent margin of error. Possible unification of the Yoon campaign with the campaign of the People's Party Ahn Chul-soo could add a few percentage points to Yoon's polling numbers to make it competitive . However, the polling trend is alarming for the Yoon camp. The PPP campaign committee seems to be disarray and at a loss as to how to reverse Yoon's slide in popularity.
Many of Yoon's gaffes are either overt or thinly disguised attacks on democratic rival Lee Jae-myung or Lee's supporters. In the context of the "poor and uneducated" comment by Yoon, he referred to those who don't have a formal education. Lee himself came from a poor family and didn't complete formal middle school or high school, and obtained graduate equivalency and college entrance with the generous help of teachers. He earned his own way through college and went to law school becoming a human rights lawyer, later elected a two time mayor of Seongnam, and then governor of Gyeonggido (province). Yoon has never been elected to office. In another gaffe which achieved some notoriety from critics, Yoon said that those who brag about having a GED, are insulting those who got their education the normal way.
No comments:
Post a Comment