Nikki Haley: Is the U.N. a better place than S.C.?

First, full disclosure, just two weeks ago (RANTS – Nov. 20), we ventured a guess that the very bright Governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, could someday become this nation’s first female President. Now, we wonder about her latest career move. She goes from Governor of a very vibrant state to a job where you can easily become invisible unless there is an international crisis of some sort. Only one U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. has ever become President – George H. W. Bush and he had a stack of other credentials. Then again, no South Carolina Governor has ever become President. But the dynamics of South Carolina have changed over the last many years in great part due to Haley. Will her U.N. job be a dead end for her political career? For her sake and our country’s, we hope not.

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1. With a couple phone calls, Donald Trump keeps Carrier Air Conditioning and over a thousand American jobs in Indiana rather than move to Mexico - this while the Obama administration was sitting on its hands. Sadly, the far left will look at saving over a thousand jobs as somehow a bad thing.

2. The new vision for Clearwater’s waterfront is promising, but the devil is in the details (read financing). Several years ago, Clearwater voters turned down a proposal where a major developer would pony up all the money. This time around, it’s going to have to be a mostly public funded project – there’s the rub.

3. Buoyed by his successful campaign to put medical marijuana in the state constitution, of all places, and the success of businessman Donald Trump on the national level, personal injury attorney John Morgan thinks he’d be a nifty governor for the Sunshine State. Don’t pick out furniture for the executive mansion just yet, John.

4. This year Clearwater has lost a lot of civic leaders who did much to shape our city over the last several decades. The latest – David Stone, banker and major player at Clearwater’s Chamber of Commerce and Ruth Eckerd Hall to name just two. A terrific guy.

5. You’ve lived in Pinellas County a long time if you remember when Boot Ranch was a boot and little else.

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. We note that Washington Post Executive Editor Marty Baron is coming to St. Pete next week to commiserate with fellow lefties on how they were so wrong (not to mention unethical) in last month’s election - hardly a victory lap.

7. Sports factoid: Bartolo Colon made his major league debut the same day Atlanta’s Turner Field opened. The new Braves pitcher’s career has outlived a major league stadium!

8. Observation: Garrison Keillor used to be so refreshing. Now he has morphed into a mean-spirited old man.

9. Just a random thought, can you imagine George S. Patton coming back to earth and observing and reacting to what is going on at our coddled college campuses today? Oh, the humanity!

10. Holiday factoid: the Rockettes were founded in St. Louis not New York, but they have been dazzling audiences in the Big Apple since 1932.

Alert to Waldo and Lawtey: this can replace your speed trap dollars

The price of parking is getting out of hand: Madeira Beach is the latest community to up the ante on parking to $2.50 an hour - about the same you would pay to park for an eight hour day at Disney World. The rationale behind the increase is that other cities are raising their rates and Madeira Beach doesn’t want to be left behind. Parking now represents the second highest revenue source in the beach community - shades of Waldo and Lawtey with their former speed traps. There will soon come a time when tourists (and locals) will push back on these shakedowns. It has already happened on Clearwater Beach when parking officials increased (and later reversed) parking fees by over 300 per cent.

SNEAK PEEK AT NEXT WEEK – USF’S WILLIE TAGGART NEEDS TO STAY PUT