Pence takes first motorcade on Michigan's Mackinac Island

Vice President Mike Pence scored a first when he took a motorcade to a speech on Michigan's picturesque Mackinac Island, drawing some criticism on social media.Pence took an eight-vehicle motorcade to the island's Grand Hotel for a speech to the Republican Leadership Conference Saturday. He flew to Michigan, took a helicopter to the small island airport and transferred to vehicles brought by boat the night before.The Detroit Free Press says it was the first ever motorcade on the island, which has prohibited vehicles since 1898 except for snowmobiles, emergency and service vehicles.Julia Pulver, a Democratic state Senate candidate in 2018, criticized the motorcade on Twitter, calling it a "huge transgression."When President Gerald Ford visited the island in 1975, he travelled by horse-drawn carriage. But supporters of Pence noted security is much tighter now.https://nbc25news.com/news/state/pen...ackinac-island

Well I guess we don't want missiles of fudge lobbed against our VP, now do we.... HA!! :)

It is what it is... for the 1979 movie Somewhere in Time [[staring Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour) a car was brought in so that Reeves could drive it up to the Grand Hotel in the movie [[the remainder of the movie was filmed at a period one hundred years earlier).

On the one hand, the optics of driving around Mackinac are pretty bad. As Steve Lehto put it, in a video he has apparently taken down, it's, at the very least, disrespectful.

On the other hand, Mackinac makes one-off exceptions to the rule pretty regularly. If you drive through the middle of the island you'll see all kinds of construction equipment, delivery trucks, garbage trucks, etc...

Here's a dump truck parked in front of the Grand Hotel:
Attachment 38981

“Banned for a century people, and here comes the Trump Administration trampling all over it, like they do the U.S. Constitution,” - Rep. Rashida Talib,"

Rep. Tliab seems more upset that the elected Republican representatives of Mackinac City allowed Pence's cars in than she is about Democrats like herself letting millions of illegal non-citizens illegally cross our national border. I'm disappointed that Mackinac City's government lowered its standards to allow an exception for a politician. If Pence needed to have eight motor vehicles, it would have been better to have this event held elsewhere.

Only tangentially related: It seems like some Amish could make a go of it on Mackinaw Island maintaining horse stables, doing harness and buggy repair and doing light construction.

This is beyond petty partisan politics. If the secret service say they need a motorcade than so be it. Let professionals do their job without chirping from the peanut gallery. Mackinaw will be just fine. We have to move on from this stupid crap from both sides.

I hate Trump. I hate Pence.

However, this is a total non-issue. He's the Vice President. Crazy people want to do bad things to him. It's not a big deal to have a motorcade.

Considering the last presidential VIP visit was in 1975 one would think the recognition bodes well,no matter what the leaning is.

There was probably a million other places he could have visited in the country,but he chose Mackinaw.

One would think that these photos from the Sheplers Ferry Twitter feed would have shutdown this nonsense immediately. The media is calling out Pence for a six car motorcade, yet they have taken fleets of trucks to cover other events on the island.

https://twitter.com/sheplersferry/status/1175951729453649921/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwte rm%5E1175951729453649921&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww .freep.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2Flocal%2Fmichigan%2F201 9%2F09%2F23%2Fsheplers-ferry-mackinac-island-cars-mike-pence%2F2418550001%2F

Motorcades and burgers. Let's face it many still like driving and eating meat, even the far left dems!

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iowa-st...ay-2019-09-21/

From article: Organizers grilled 10,500 steaks for attendees on Saturday, along with 1,000 vegan burgers. There is only one vegan candidate in the presidential race: Senator Cory Booker.

Maybe he just shouldn't have gone to Mackinac then. He could just as easily sat in his office in DC and talked to the group over a video feed. If he's too afraid to take a horse and carriage from the docks or airport on a tiny island with what I'm sure would have been heavy security, he must be really worried about getting shot at. Gerald Ford took the horse when he was Pres. This was pure grandstanding. They knew it was going to raise a shit storm

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Originally Posted by ABetterDetroit

This is beyond petty partisan politics. If the secret service say they need a motorcade than so be it. Let professionals do their job without chirping from the peanut gallery. Mackinaw will be just fine. We have to move on from this stupid crap from both sides.

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Originally Posted by jcole

Maybe he just shouldn't have gone to Mackinac then. He could just as easily sat in his office in DC and talked to the group over a video feed. If he's too afraid to take a horse and carriage from the docks or airport on a tiny island with what I'm sure would have been heavy security, he must be really worried about getting shot at. Gerald Ford took the horse when he was Pres. This was pure grandstanding. They knew it was going to raise a shit storm

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It wasn't up to Pence. The Pence people probably asked for permission to bring in their caravan as a condition. The city said 'yes". I blame Mackinac City's government. I didn't like the exception to the rules either but I don't vote there.

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Originally Posted by jcole

Maybe he just shouldn't have gone to Mackinac then. He could just as easily sat in his office in DC and talked to the group over a video feed. If he's too afraid to take a horse and carriage from the docks or airport on a tiny island with what I'm sure would have been heavy security, he must be really worried about getting shot at. Gerald Ford took the horse when he was Pres. This was pure grandstanding. They knew it was going to raise a shit storm

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It’s not 1975 anymore. Making a list about what is significantly different would be an exercise in stupidity.

I am not a Pence supporter, but labeling him as “afraid” for not dictating to the Secret Service how they should do their job doesn’t seem all that fair to our high ranking leaders no matter what their politics are. I would feel the same way on this issue if it was President Obama or President Bush.

The Secret Service has protocol and all public servants should respect it. When those agents screw up, and they have, they look like incompetent idiots. The last thing we need is every one of the people under their protection breaking protocol and making it many times harder and much more expensive to complete the mission. Yes, locking down a “tiny island” costs much more than transporting the necessary vehicles and sweeping the parade route.

Every single thing doesn’t need to be politicized. Let the pros do their job successfully at the least cost to us because paying for whims, optics and traditions is a waste of money we could be spending to benefit all citizens instead of the chosen few. Enough of that crap already.

The only significance I see here is the GOP jettisoning their traditional reverence for tradition.

Maybe it should be rebranded the GFTPYP: Grand, Fuck Tradition, Pseudo-Young Party?

President Ford was the only sitting president to visit the island,arriving by helicopter.


So what is the tradition,one arrived by helicopter and the other now by motorcade.

In 1975 you could walk to an airplane and board,no longer.

How did Obama or anybody in his administration arrive?

Pence is a putz along with everyone associated with him.

But MI ceased to exist for me in the mid 80s when I went there. The place was over run with vehicles doing all sorts of machine tasks. I've never been back and never will be. Thing is, if they tried to stick to tradition, there would be no end of griping from state employees and unions who would be fully opposed to using horse drawn equipment, the way the place was probably created.


But yeah, Pence is a putz. Nothing will change that.

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Originally Posted by Meddle

But MI ceased to exist for me in the mid 80s when I went there. The place was over run with vehicles doing all sorts of machine tasks. I've never been back and never will be.

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So what you are saying is that you prefer the rest of the world which is always overrun by motor vehicles.... really? :eek: