Lee's Blue House Blues

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Photograph for TIME by Jae-hyun Kim

Bend in the Wind
As President, Lee has had to modulate his hard-charging style

There was an air of invincibility surrounding Lee Myung Bak when he took office as South Korea's President in February. The 66-year-old former CEO won election with ease, the lopsided victory seemingly providing Lee with a mandate to ram through his ambitious agenda of economic reform, tough love for North Korea and a higher international profile for his country. But a mere three months later, the man South Koreans call "the Bulldozer" has bogged down. In the past few days, tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of downtown Seoul to demonstrate against him. Lee's public...