2023 Myrtle Beach Race for Council Special Series

In this Special Edition of our show we are adding a third installment to the special series we ran in January looking back at the life and career of Senator Mitch McConnell, the longest serving Republican Leader in the history of the Senate. In our special series in January we profiled the leader and his historic role over the past 40 years in the Senate. We even labeled him as the Senator of the Century. It would be hard to find an argument against the statement. He totally changed the direction of the Federal Judiciary especially the Supreme Court. 

We added this episode due to the announcement that he would be stepping down in November after the 2024 election as the Senate Republican Leader. This announcement caught us here off-guard and we look at it with some level of actual fear. As far as we are concerned Senator Mitch McConnell has led not only with integrity, he has often been the only adult in Washington D.C. on either side of the aisle. In an era of midget sized leadership from literally almost every position in Government he has been a giant and often he has alone been the one voice of reason at the helm and without him there it is almost scary where things may actually go for our republic. 

In this episode, we will look at last week’s announcement and this episode will feature the full Senate floor speech by Mitch McConnell. 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
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Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
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In this episode, we will examine one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation passed since the 1960s. It was the Americans with Disabilities Act, and it insured for all Americans the basic right to equal access to all of American Life. It is hard to believe that there was actually a day when people with disabilities were forced to stay home, hidden from the rest of society. They were often discriminated against in employment opportunities, in restaurants, and other public places, and they had to figure out how to make do in a world designed to leave them behind. 

That all changed with the stroke of George H. W. Bush's pen. He pushed for the law and worked to see it passed even though one of his strongest allies, the  American business community was staunchly against it due to the costs it would have to bare.  Strangely, George Bush would have allies in this fight, allies from unlikely sources, and places. 

He had the help of Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat from Iowa, whose own brother was deaf, and he would have the help of an old nemesis he had had to battle to find himself in the Presidency at all. His old 1988 primary opponent, Senator Bob Dole of Kansas.  Dole, a veteran of World War 2, had been gravely injured in Italy toward the end of the war. He had lost a kidney, was paralyzed from the neck down for nearly a year, spent 36 months in an Army hospital, and lost the use of his right arm, and some of the feeling in his left hand as a result of his war wounds. 

Bob Dole had a daily reminder of the sacrifice he and others had made for their country in war. He also knew what it was like to go from being an able bodied person to an American with a Disability, and he wanted to even the playing field for all of  them. Dole wanted to give them the opportunity for a better life and it was through this effort that Bush and Dole would work together for a cause so much larger than themselves.  A cause that has helped millions of disabled Americans forge for themselves the full blessings of American Life. It is quite a story, and we try to tell it from the start to the sunny , hot day in July of 1990 when George H. W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act into law on the White House Lawn with Senators Tom Harkin and Bob Dole by his side. It was an amazing day. 

But just as the sun set on this amazing accomplishment in domestic civil rights, a war would explode onto the scene on the other side of the world that would demand the President's attention, and set the example on how to handle conflicts every President and leader could learn from.  Iraq would invade Kuwait.  

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
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Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
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In this episode we close out our podcast coverage of the 2024 South Carolina Presidential Primary. We will listen in to the concession speech of former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and the victory address from former President Donald Trump. We will also hear remarks from South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, and our two Senators Tim Scott, and Lindsey Graham. 

It is that always fun moment when we get to hear from the candidates themselves for that brief moment when they get to savor victory or put a spin on defeat before going to the next states, as Willie Nelson sang  they will be "On the Road Again" 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
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Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
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Feedspot released yesterday, February 26, 2024, our ranking at number 1  of the 70 Best American History Podcasts of 2024. 

https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/  Here is the List

We are enormously proud to have been listed in that position and we thought we would have a little fun on our victory lap in this episode, but most importantly, we are enormously grateful to all of you who have tuned in for the past nearly four years and 12 Seasons. It has been an honor, and a pleasure to tell these stories and have some fun with you too. 

Thank you again!!!

Randal Wallace
Host: "Randal Wallace Presents" and "The Richard Nixon Experience" Podcasts originally titled "Bridging the Political Gap" 


We want to recognize TOSCDOV, and his video "Trump Can't Win" from YOUTUBE for some of the clips used in our reel, also the WWE and "Ric Flair"  for a segment in the clip reel.  

Again, I am honored that you have tuned in and lifted us into the top spot in American History Podcasts.  

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
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In our final show to air before the South Carolina Presidential Primary election, our Host Randal Wallace , will discuss what he believes is the root cause of much of the division our country faces today. It is the criminalization of politics and the weaponization of Justice in America. It is the legacy of the worst and least qualified Attorney General to ever hold the position, Robert F. Kennedy, and it has morphed into a tragic way of administering Justice in this country that has left a legacy politically of extreme bitterness that may, with a combination of a number of other factors, be driving the collective meltdown our nation seems to be facing.

This episode will cover the history of how the Justice Department began the targeting of individuals with the goal to find a crime instead of chasing crime where it occurs, and how that weaponization has mostly been aimed at Republican Officials when it has been used in the political sphere. But, understand this method is not JUST being used in the political sphere, nor at JUST the Federal level, it is being used across the board to incarcerate people who run afoul of overzealous prosecutors and people with political agendas all across the nation. It is also, I believe, being used in an attempt to prevent former President Donald Trump from getting re-elected President of the United States.

However, as horrible as what is happening to Mr. Trump has obviously become, it is ripe with possibilities that now this evil that has beset our country, divided us into tribes, and created such anger and bitterness can be changed. For the first time, the collective strategic takedown of a political figure has so far not worked, as it did in the cases of Richard Nixon, George H. W. Bush, Ted Stevens, and countless other lesser known figures, and if Donald Trump is re-elected after the $500 million dollar onslaught of unequal justice he has been subjected too, there is a real possibility that he may very well take the actions to end, what Maurice Stans, a victim of the Watergate Special Prosecutor's Office rightfully titled, the "Terrors of Justice" . For that reason, among many, we here wholeheartedly endorse Donald Trump for President just the day before the South Carolina Presidential Primary.


Theme song is  Produced by Danya Vodovoz, link to my song   https://youtu.be/NRxduUMZcdw

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
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In this episode , we will let you listen in on the Colorado Ballot Access case against President Donald Trump. This case rests on accusing Former President Donald Trump of being an insurrectionist, a charge of which has not been made in ANY of the 91 indictments so far being charged in the court cases in New York, Georgia, or in Federal Court in Miami, Florida.

We thought in this final week before the February 24, 2024 South Carolina Primary our listeners may want to hear the oral arguments that were presented in front of the United States Supreme Court in the same manner we presented the Nixon vs the United States oral arguments during our "Nixon and Watergate"  Series, (Now re-airing on our sister podcast The Richard Nixon Experience)

This is a two part episode and presents the oral arguments in their entirety.

Theme song is  Produced by Danya Vodovoz, link to my song   https://youtu.be/NRxduUMZcdw

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

"Read My Lips , No New Taxes!!" , the most famous words George H. W. Bush ever uttered. He said it at the 1988 Republican National Convention as he struggled to unite his party for the coming race for President against a surging Michael Dukakis, Governor of Massachusetts.  Dukakis was a whopping 20 points ahead of George Bush the sitting Vice President. While Ronald Reagan had grown to have a good relationship with his Vice President, those around Reagan and the conservative wing of the Republican Party he represented did not trust George Bush. He had to bring them into the fold if he had any hope of catching and defeating Michael Dukakis. So Bush made a promise, a promise he would have to break for the betterment of the country. 

He would live to hear those words again. 

This is the story of the 1990 Budget Deal that led to George Bush reneging on his promise to not raise taxes. It would lay the groundwork for much of the division among the various factions within the Republican Party that still lingers to this day.  Robert Cahaly, of the Trafalgar Group National Polling Firm, says much of what you see today in the modern political landscape is found in the coming 1992 election divisions that would eventually cost George H. W. Bush his Presidency. As he points out the Ross Perot voters of then are Republicans now, and 20% of the Republicans then are Democrats now. 

The decision to go back on that pledge had a profound effect on the Republican Party.  It led to the "America First" anti establishment campaign of Pat Buchanan, and in the remnants of that campaign are the seeds of the rise of another political figure nearly three decades later, President Donald Trump.  That is a story we will tell in our next season of shows but for now here is where it all started. 

In this episode we go back to the very start of it all, the 1990 Budget Deal that may very well have laid the groundwork for the boom of the 1990s, but it did so at the expense of the unifying principles of the old Republican Party, and in that split, lay the seeds of the populist party of Donald Trump we see today. 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

In this episode , we will let you listen in on the Colorado Ballot Access case against President Donald Trump. This case rests on accusing Former President Donald Trump of being an insurrectionist, a charge of which has not been made in ANY of the 91 indictments so far being charged in the court cases in New York, Georgia, or in Federal Court in Miami, Florida.

We thought in this final week before the February 24, 2024 South Carolina Primary our listeners may want to hear the oral arguments that were presented in front of the United States Supreme Court in the same manner we presented the Nixon vs the United States oral arguments during our "Nixon and Watergate"  Series, (Now re-airing on our sister podcast The Richard Nixon Experience) 

This is a two part episode and presents the oral arguments in their entirety.

Theme song is  Produced by Danya Vodovoz, link to my song   https://youtu.be/NRxduUMZcdw

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

Join us in this episode for the Donald Trump for President Rally. As the old saying goes poor planning on my part does not constitute an emergency on their part. I did not get there in time to get in because 20,000 plus may have been in attendance.

You will get to hear our host as he tries to get in before giving up and heading home only to be stuck in traffic on Hwy 501 all while President Donald Trump takes the stage to electrify the crowd.

Theme song is  Produced by Danya Vodovoz, link to my song   https://youtu.be/NRxduUMZcdw

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

In this episode we see the South Carolina Primary starting to heat up, which is what this primary is historically well known for doing.  We will feature two Donald Trump for President events , one in Columbia centered on Nikki Haley's record on illegal immigration as compared to that of President Donald Trump , and another in Horry County at the Conway Courthouse that centers on Governor Haley's friendly relationship with China.

It is an all star cast of speakers from Attorney General Alan Wilson, State Treasurer Curtis Loftus, to Representatives Stuart Jones and Bill Taylor, then when we get to Horry County, we will hear from Representatives Case Brittain, and Val Guest and then  Congresswoman Nancy Mace and the State's biggest rising political star Congressman Russell Fry, as they talk Chinese Spy Balloons and Nikki Haley's supposed status as the Chinese's favorite Governor. 

This episode begins the hard hitting nature for which the South Carolina Primary has become famous and this cycle is just getting started.

Then we switch gears, and sides, to cover the South Carolina Democratic Presidential Primary which this year became the first in the election cycle on the Democratic side. It was pretty much a non event, given that after Robert Kennedy Jr decided to run as an independent that turned it into  essentially a one man show on their side of the fence.  Joe Biden carried 97% of the vote in a state that has always looked out for him. The big question for his campaign, however, was the extraordinarily low turn out, only 200,000 voters statewide. Is that an ominous sign for the race to come?  Who knows for sure,  but we do know this for sure we are now officially underway in the race for the White House.

Theme song is  Produced by Danya Vodovoz, link to my song   https://youtu.be/NRxduUMZcdw

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

It is the season 12 premier episode and with such a long gap since our last Bush episode we thought we would start by looking at the life of George Bush , from his love of Golf and his family connection to the game, to his military time in World War 2, and his time as Vice President, up to the moment in our timeline when Bush enters his second year in the Presidency. 

It is in 1990, when President Bush meets with Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev to sign the Arms Reduction Agreement at a Summit in Washington D.C.  The relationship had come a long way and it was clear the Cold War was thawing out and the relationship between the struggling Soviet Union and the United States was in fact getting much warmer. 

In this episode, we look back at the thawing of tensions in the Cold War and listen in on the historic press conference with George H. W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev, as an era of peace begins to be taking shape. However,  things would soon take a very different turn. 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

Though many in the political world think this race is all but over, it still is not over. I can tell you from my many years of working in South Carolina politics that Former Governor Nikki Haley is no paper tiger and underestimating her is something you will do at your own political peril, just ask any number of leading political figures who did that in the 2000s, when she rose out of political nowhere, to end up the Governor of South Carolina. I remember "Nikki Who?"

So, here we are with Nikki Haley and Donald Trump the last two political figures standing in the 2024 Republican Presidential Primaries. Haley has a ginormous mountain to climb but I do think in fairness to her, we should let her fight the battle she wants to fight, in the end, Former President Donald Trump will end up all the stronger for it if he emerges, as it appears he almost certainly will, victorious.  That is why in this show I have called on the Republican State Party leadership to make the local parties maintain at least some level of fairness for our former Governor and the second place running candidate until this primary is actually over. Nikki Haley has a perfect right to continue her campaign until she is ready to withdraw and she should be allowed to participate in party events, meetings, and gatherings until such time as she ends her campaign or she is defeated.

With that said, here is her rally in Conway, South Carolina, at Coast Carolina University . When you listen to this rally you will fully understand why I stated earlier that she is no paper tiger. This is a masterful performance and while I doubt she can make a serious run at the nomination in 2024, I would say she is clearly on the radar screen for 2028 and beyond. 

This rally begins with introductory remarks from another political figure in South Carolina, Myrtle Beach Mayor Brenda Bethune. Most of her remarks are included here as well. I do wish to thank the television stations for covering this event because I was not actually able to be there in person but I have hoped to cover this primary with total fairness and at least some level of equal time to the candidates. 








Theme song is  Produced by Danya Vodovoz, link to my song   https://youtu.be/NRxduUMZcdw

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

Charles Osgood Wood III , was the given name of a television icon, we all knew simply as Charles Osgood.  He was the host of the CBS News "Sunday Morning" broadcast for 22 years but long before that he was the voice for the Osgood File on CBS Radio. It was that voice that made him instantly recognizable to almost everyone in America. He stood out in the media landscape for his understatement and his genuine kind nature. He was a poet, a musician, and an extraordinary storyteller.  He seemed to have always been around. It was that understatement that made you feel like you were listening to a kindly relative who had always been there and that perhaps you did not really appreciate like you should have until you realized he was not there any longer. 

I think we have all missed Charles Osgood since the day he retired in 2017. I know I have missed him. In a world that seems to be half crazy all the time, I enjoyed his simple uplifting stories and his amazingly insightful poetry early on each Sunday morning. His famous two minute commentaries, "The Osgood Files", were always insightful and thought provoking and his poems were exactly perfect for the moment you had tuned in for on those Sunday Mornings. 

So , in this episode, we look back on his amazing life and career, with tributes from his friends and his journalistic colleagues, we here wisdom from him in his interviews and speeches, and we found a good cross section of his many commentaries known as "The Osgood File" , we hope it is a fitting tribute to the CBS Newsman known as the networks poet in residence, and we will even listen in for a song or too. 

Charles Osgood was 91, and we can honestly say of this icon of television news, "We were glad to know you" and as we bid farewell we will simply say Godspeed, Mr. Osgood, We will see you on the radio, until we meet again. 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
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Welcome to the 2024 South Carolina Hall of Fame Induction ceremony in Myrtle Beach , South Carolina.  

In this episode , we have included some of the news coverage of the induction ceremony both before the event with an interview with SC Hall of Fame Chairman Randal Wallace (also the host of this podcast) and the coverage after the ceremony occured from the evening newscast on WBTW - TV 13, which is the local CBS affiliate.  The episode includes the entire 2024 Induction Ceremony with acceptance addresses from Judge Alan Clemmons, SC Historical Society President Faye Jensen (with brief remarks from Mrs. Mancke) , and Joe Frazier Jr. 

The 2024 South Carolina Hall of Fame Inductees were Francis Salvador, Rudy Mancke and Joe Frazier and  they are all briefly profiled in this episode, they are also more thoroughly profiled in the previous episode of our podcast.  This episode also includes remarks from Myrtle Beach Mayor Brenda Bethune and Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Karen Riordan. 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

This is a housekeeping show to let everyone know when the George Bush series will be returning to the podcast. It will also fill you in on what we have been doing and what else we have in store over the next few weeks. 

We hope you are enjoying the various new things and subjects we have been trying to cover. Please let us know what you think. 

Randal 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

In one of the true honors of our host Randal Wallace's career has been his appointment as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the South Carolina Hall of Fame.  2024 marks the first time Mr. Wallace would preside over the induction ceremony of honorees inducted into the South Carolina Hall of Fame.  He decided that we would make a podcast covering the event. 

In this two part episode we look on at the 2024 Induction Ceremony honoring Francis Salvador, Rudy Manke and Joe Frazier.  We begin by looking at the honorees and their lives. 

Francis Salvador was an American Revolutionary figure who was also the first Jewish person elected to public office in America, and the first Jewish person to die fighting for independence in America. 

Rudy Mancke, the host of SC ETV's Nature Scenes television show that became a national broadcast introducing young people all over the country to the natural world around us, a show featuring  a host who so clearly loved his job and the natural world he was exposing his audience too. Nature Scenes ran for 23 years. 

Smokin Joe Frazier was the undisputed World Heavyweight Boxing Champion who was the first man to defeat Mohammad Ali at Madison Square Garden in the first of a three fight series that are easily the most famous boxing matches in the entire history of the sport.  To say that Joe Frazier was a giant in the sport of boxing is an understatement of huge proportions. He shared the ring with some of the greatest athletes of the era and one of them, George Foreman, is quoted as saying that Joe Frazier was the one opponent he feared. 

We also are proud to share with you on this podcast a Question and Answer segment with the son of honoree Joe Frazier, Joe Frazier Jr. It is an inspirational talk with the young people of Myrtle Beach S.C, and it is a segment they won't ever forget and you won't either. 

We also spend a couple of minutes learning about the history of the Hall of Fame with one of its founding Board members and former long time Chairman , Former Myrtle Beach Mayor Robert Hirsch. 

We hope you enjoy this first of two episodes on the South Carolina Hall of Fame and its newest honorees. 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

In our final episode in this special series we will listen in as Mayor Hirsch talks about his wife of many years, Ethel Hirsch. Her many contributions to his successful life, and career, and the raising of 10 children.  The real keys to happy life are right here to be learned in this special story. 

We will also listen , in its entirety, to the speech that inspired this special series in the first place. When Mayor Bob Hirsch addressed the ceremony at the Grand opening of the Myrtle Beach World War 2 Memorial. It was an extraordinary  address that captured all the high points, emotions, and the sense of adventure that came from the generation that fought this horrific War. 

We then switch gears to hear some advice for the future leaders  who are now taking their seats at the table of government and for the next generation of young people who are just starting out in life too. 

It is an episode of sound advice from our local example of all the great lessons of leadership we should be learning from the example set by the Greatest Generation. 

It has been an honor to produce these seven episodes. 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

In this episode, in our special series, looking at the career of former Mayor Robert Hirsch, we look back at his arrival in Myrtle Beach and his single term as Mayor. It was a term of extraordinary accomplishment, much of which may not be as well known by the public in general today.  Myrtle Beach today is the fastest growing region in America, a far cry from where it was in the early 1970s.

When Mayor Hirsch was elected in 1973 , the City of Myrtle Beach was operated under an entirely different form of government than it is today.  In that time the Mayor ran the city and each council member ran a separate department of the city government.  That system was the first thing Mayor Hirsch worked to change, leading a movement that changed the form of government to the type of city government structure we have today, a Council-Manager form of Government. Where a professional Manager runs the day to day operations of the city and the Mayor and Council are a policy setting body.  When that referendum was held in the early 1970's the citizens of Myrtle Beach voted for it overwhelmingly. 

Mayor Hirsch also led the way to adopting the zoning and building code document that has served as the foundation for the way the city operates to this day. He worked with Senator Strom Thurmond and Congressman John Jenrette to get joint runway use for commercial flights to begin coming to the City of Myrtle Beach, opening up an entirely new way to bring tourists into our community.  It is hard to imagine the city of Myrtle Beach even functioning without those three major initiatives, that Mayor Bob Hirsch spearheaded, not being in place. They are so integral to how the city functions that they are often today taken for granted as a given. 

When Mayor Hirsch left office he was immediately recruited by the new Republican Governor in the State, James Edwards, to head up the Energy Department for South Carolina and later to join his staff. His work in that realm actually contributed greatly  to Jim Edwards being selected to go to Washington D.C. to lead the Energy Department under President Ronald Reagan. For a brief time there were even calls for Bob Hirsch to run for Governor of South Carolina.  However, Bob Hirsch decided to come home to Myrtle Beach where he would serve another term as a city councilmember here a decade after leaving Columbia.

Bob Hirsch would also through out the next half century serve as the Chairman, and as a  Board Member of the South Carolina Hall of Fame, and under his leadership it became one of the highest honors available for any citizen to achieve in our state, to be inducted into the South Carolina Hall of Fame. 

In this episode we will listen in as Mayor Hirsch recalls the moments in those years that made all of that possible. 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

In our third episode of the Grand Strand Politics segment, we witness what we thought was going to be the first of many rallies in the Myrtle Beach area as we got closer to a barnburner of a fight in the South Carolina Presidential Preference Primary on the Republican side this year.  Instead, it appears the race was over within 48 hours of that rally.

In this episode we shall see the power play that shutdown the primary election cycle turning it from a contested battle between four candidates, Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley and Asa Hutchinson. To a two person race, in name only,  between Former President Donald Trump and former United Nations Ambassador and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.  In just one day, you see us go from a super charged Ron Desantis rally in Myrtle Beach, we covered for you live, to Senator Tim Scott's endorsement of Trump, and then a rally that very night  in New Hampshire that literally made you wonder if the entire State Leadership of South Carolina had come to New Hampshire and left South Carolina with only a lonely Maytag Repairman watching over the State.

It was a who's who of South Carolina's political figures, Governor Henry McMaster, Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette, SC House Speaker Meryl Smith, Congressmen Joe Wilson and William Timmons,  State Attorney General Alan Wilson, State Treasurer Curtis Loftis,  and our state's newest and biggest political rockstar, Congressman Russell Fry, all on stage, to endorse and support, former President Donald Trump.

What happened next, for all intents and purposes, ended the Republican Presidential Primary, with Governor Ron DeSantis dropping out and Asa Hutchinson being swamped on election night and only Nikki Haley refusing to leave the race. It appears to me the 2024 Presidential Primary on the Republican side is over before it ever really got started, though we may still see an attempt at a challenge from Nikki Haley who is currently a whopping 60 points down in her own home state.

You can listen to it all unfold in this episode of Grand Strand Politics as we set the stage for the coming South Carolina Presidential Primary, that may, or may not, end up even contested in the end.

Theme song is  Produced by Danya Vodovoz, link to my song   https://youtu.be/NRxduUMZcdw

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
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In this special Edition within our special series I thought it was important to introduce you to three of the names you have heard or will hear in our series.  As a person in my 50s who has worked in or around politics my entire life these names are familiar to me.  That may not be the case for so many of our listeners who are either younger or not from South Carolina. 

Strom Thurmond, the former Senator from South Carolina, was as dominate a political figure in my home state for decades as any name you will ever know. He literally served in political office for 72 years and up to the age of 100.  Governor Jim Edwards, the first Republican Governor in South Carolina since Reconstruction, was also a well known figure for many years. Both men have also been out of public office for more than 20 years or longer. I thought it would be important to introduce you to both men so that our younger listeners can grasp how important they were in their time. 

I also have learned  in the three years and 12 seasons we have been producing these documentary podcasts that you end up with great materials that don't actually fit into your narrative. In the case of General George Patton we had that issue. Mayor Hirsch met Patton while he was fighting in the war but he headed home before the General died in a car accident near Christmas of 1945.  

We found an extraordinary documentary short on Patton's life from the time of his death and it was narrated by Ronald Reagan. We wanted to share that short audio with our audience but could not find a place where it would fit. So we thought we would share it here. The same for another interesting story told by Mayor Hirsch that involved the star of our current long series , President George H. W. Bush. We thought that would be a great story to share here in this episode as well. 

We hope you will enjoy this episode of what we like to call our "DVD Extras" 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!