The life of Park Geun Hye, South Korea's just-inaugurated first female president, has so far been bookended by two larger-than-life men of debatable success.
The first is her father, Park Chung Hee, the dictator who ruled the nation for 18 years until his assassination in 1979. The second is Lee Myung Bak, her predecessor who spent the last five years in the Blue House, South Korea's presidential residence, and is a fellow member of her New Frontier Party.
Park must deal with their shortcomings in reverse. The immediate challenge is to be truer to her party's name than Lee ever was. Lee left office this week with an approval rating in the 20s, an economy burdened by record household debt, a widening income gap, a strong currency that is hurting export competitiveness, relations with Japan frayed and North Korea raising hell around the globe.