Pop-Tarts celebrated its 50th anniver- sary last week, providing cardboard-tasting crust & jelly-flavored breakfast/ late-night snacks mainly to Americans.

DOES TRAVEL BY EX-POTUSES TO RAISE MONEY
COST AMERICAN TAXPAYERS EVEN MORE
THAN CAMPAIGN CASH THEY RAKE IN?

Barbara Mikulski wastes U.S. Senate’s time extolling Orioles’ magic
as local area newscasters morph into bush-league cheerleaders

PANETTA LAUNCHES HILLARY’S CAMPAIGN
WITH ATTACK ON FORMER BOSS OBAMA

Pop-Tarts celebrates 50 years of cardboard-tasting crust & jelly;
Téa Leoni stars as thinly disguised clone of former First Lady
 
By David Maril
 
While trying to determine why Pop-Tarts, a toasted breakfast pastry that seems like nothing more than fruit-flavored jam in a pocket of cardboard-tasting crust, have remained popular for 50 years, it’s interesting to note the following:

  Any time Barack Obama, or any other sitting president, makes an appearance in a city to participate in a party fundraiser, you might wonder if the money raised equals what’s spent on security and extra state and local traffic details. The President was in Baltimore recently to attend a fund-raising dinner.

When Obama, in the spirit of the Star Spangled Banner celebration, also made a quick visit to Fort McHenry, thousands of people either had to scrap most of their plans for the day or drastically alter their schedules because of unannounced road closures and hours of gridlock to clear a path for the presidential motorcade.

How many voters who have been inconvenienced, on roads and highways and in airports, by presidential visits, would object to legislation that prohibits U.S. presidents while in office from devoting travel time to attend fundraisers?

You can certainly make a case that the Commander-in-Chief is president of all the people and should not be touring the country panhandling for money to boost a particular political party or its candidates.

Let’s be clear however on one thing. This isn’t strictly an Obama issue. Most of his predecessors have followed the same fundraising practice. Some, to even greater extremes.

PRESIDENTIAL GLOBETROTTING TO PANDER FOR MONEY

It’s one thing for a president who is running for reelection, to travel around making campaign speeches. That’s part of the process. But to go globetrotting around to pander for money, especially in the midst of a second term and no reelection campaign possible, is time poorly spent by any sitting president.

  Next time you consider contributing to a politician in an election campaign, consider a report in USA Today that Washington House members and candidates used over $14.8 million from their donation war chests on food over the last three years.

  Speaking of our federal election officials wasting the taxpayers’ time, how about Maryland U. S. Senator Barbara Mikulski’s spending close to seven minutes on the chamber floor extolling the virtues of the Eastern Division Champion Baltimore Orioles?

With all the crisis situations around the world and the crucial domestic decisions that are not being addressed in Congress, you’d think senators and congressmen, who often seem to be out of session more than in, would be focused on making the most efficient use of formal meeting time.

Making her prolonged discourse even more ludicrous, the Maryland senator referred to Hall of Famer Earl Weaver as a “coach” instead of a manager when she was rambling on about the richness of Orioles history.

  Still on the subject of Orioles pride, is it really appropriate for local-news television broadcasters, who would like us to believe they are journalists, to appear on air wearing Orioles shirts, caps and other team clothing? Should they be celebrating, rather than reporting, the team’s championship achievements?

STRICTLY SMALL-TIME AND BUSH-LEAGUE

This business of referring to the team as “we” is strictly small-time and bush-league.

Believe it or not, not every single person in Maryland is a fan of every local team. There are plenty of people who move here from other areas of the country and keep their former hometown favorites.

Reporting with a jubilant tone on the team’s success and the euphoria of its fans is fine. But shouldn’t there be some measure of professional detachment when on the air?

Believe me, I am as big an Orioles fan as anyone. I can still name everyone on the 25-man roster of the 1966 World Championship team.

But I still find it embarrassing when TV anchors and reporters start acting more like cheerleaders and employees of the team rather than being journalists.

And when a reporter becomes a cheerleader, it makes it difficult to deliver, with credibility, news such as Chris Davis being suspended for use of amphetamines or former Raven running back Ray Rice’s tumble from hero to zero for slugging and knocking out his future wife.

  Just asking, but how many Orioles fans and sports media experts would have predicted a division crown knowing the now-suspended Davis would fail to hit .200, Manny Machado and Matt Wieters would miss most of the season, and high-priced pitcher Ubaldo Jiminéz wouldn’t be effective enough to stay in the starting rotation?

All of this should translate into Buck Showalter earning Manager of the Year honors.

In the wake of the NFL’s botched cover-up of the Ray Rice domestic abuse scandal, the Baltimore Ravens this past weekend invited fans to ex- change their T-shirts, but only for team-approved merchandise bearing Rice’s name and number.

  The more that comes out about the NFL’s dysfunctional handling of the Ray Rice mess, the more apparent the league is little more than a powerful public relations/damage-control business that only cares about excessive profits.

One has to wonder if the wealthy see-no-evil owners have been getting their money’s worth out of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who reportedly gets paid some $44 million a year.

  Leon Panetta, the former Secretary of Defense, seems to be picking an unusual time to appear on CBS’s 60 Minutes and publicly second-guess Obama, his former boss.

Panetta, interviewed by Scott Pelley, makes no bones about stating the President went against his advice in getting out of Iraq too quickly and not coming to the aid of Syria’s so-called “moderate” rebels sooner.

With the Democrats facing tough odds in holding on to the Senate in the upcoming election and the President having a hard-time building universal support for the details of his strategy to defeat ISIS terrorists, this appears to be a pretty cheap shot from a former inside staffer.

Panetta’s close ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton — he was Bill’s initial OMB Director (1993-94) and then White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to ’97 — makes it obvious this is part of the former First Lady’s plan to distance herself from Obama as she begins her run for president.

It’s one thing for a former cabinet member to write a book criticizing the president after the commander-in-chief is out of office. However, to do this at a time when Obama is struggling to elevate his sagging popularity is unusual and serves as a boost to Republicans.

  Speaking of Hillary Clinton and CBS, does anyone actually believe the network isn’t trying to capitalize on Clinton’s expected run for the presidency, with the upcoming series called “Madam Secretary”?

If they had wanted to avoid the connection, they wouldn’t have had an actress like Téa Leoni, with blond hair, starring in the lead role as Secretary of State.
 
davidmaril@voiceofbaltimore.org
 
“Inside Pitch” is a weekly opinion column written for Voice of Baltimore by David Maril.
 
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