Tag: China

The Donald Trump Experience

I went to the Donald Trump campaign rally Tuesday night at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center in order to experience the current Trump phenomenon first hand.

I came away less than impressed.

Whoever did advance, if anyone, for the Trump visit blew it by ultimately choosing the convention center. Neither the advance team nor the convention center staff had any idea how to set up the site for a political rally.

The Mitt Romney event of 2012 at Horry Georgetown Technical College on the old air force base, while much smaller was much better put together with only one day notice.

To any candidate looking to hold a rally in Myrtle Beach in the future, don’t choose the convention center.

Now to Trump.

His speech, if you can call it that, he proudly said was without teleprompters. Of course, it would have been hard to put it on a teleprompter because even he, apparently, did not know what he was going to say before he got up to the microphone.

The first 20 minutes was a recitation of what great crowds attend his events, polling numbers from many of the early primary states that show him in the lead and how great he is compared to the other candidates.

He felt the need to introduce all his family members who had accompanied him to Myrtle Beach and gave the microphone to his current (third) wife, Melania, for a few comments about what a great president Trump would be.

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Myrtle Beach City Election Runup

The Myrtle Beach city elections are just over three weeks away and the game of keep the incumbents in power is in full swing.

There were competing op-eds in local media recently between local writer Mande Wilkes and Myrtle Beach public information officer Mark Kruea that are of note in this election season.

The opinions expressed in the two columns demonstrate the current disconnect between Myrtle Beach city officials and the people who live and work in the city.

Wilkes criticized the “Asian fetish” of Myrtle Beach City Council while stifling local business investors with “the bizarre zoning laws, the oppressive signing ordinances, the climbing licensing fees, and the restrictive parking policies.”

“All of these rules add up to a suffocating environment for businesses, and that’s why Highway 17 is littered with empty storefronts and dilapidated buildings,” Wilkes wrote.

“I wonder if it’s common for a relatively small-town mayor to be paid to jetset across the globe,” Wilkes speculated.

We agree with Wilkes’ assessment. Myrtle Beach City Council ignores locals while looking for big hitters from abroad.

She stung council enough that an official response was deemed necessary.

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Gingrich, Myrtle Beach, Oil and Interstates

Myrtle Beach Redux

Filing for the November 2013 Myrtle Beach city elections closed Friday September 6th and it looks like four more years of same old, same old in city politics.

That means most of the political issues, and all of the important ones, will be decided in the Dunes Club card room before they are ever discussed in city hall.

Three candidates, Bill Howard, Jerry Fout and Robert Palmer, filed to run against Mayor John Rhodes, which effectively means Rhodes will be easily re-elected because the north end will vote in a block for him and the three challengers will split whatever may come from the forgotten remainder of the city.

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