Anyone Else Remember When Bill Clinton Was Hitting Up Donors To Pay His MonicaGate Legal Fees?
I sure hope he’s paid them back:
The Clintons’ joint returns show them earning more than $109 million over a period of seven years.
The biggest source of income is Bill Clinton’s speeches — source of $51 million. He made another $30 million from books; Hillary made about $10 million from her book.
Ye gads…this ‘public service’ thing is quite a racket. If Hillary loses, she can just get another $10 million book contract with the premise that she was screwed by a vast left AND right wing conspiracy…
Do you think that Clinton made more money after his Presidency than Reagan or Bush I?
This isn’t a trick question — I don’t know the answer — just wondering if this amount would be unusually high for an ex-President.
I would guess so, for no other reason but simple inflation. I do have the impression that Clinton sought to leverage his popularity more than Reagan and Bush I. I don’t begrudge him (or her) the money; obviously people are willing to pay him.
Well, they WERE willing to do so. I have a feeling that the bad blood generated by this race is going to hurt Bill’s asking price in terms of speaking fees for a while.
Well, there’s no doubt all ex-Presidents earn huge speaking fees…and inflation plays a role – still, $109 million seems quite excessive. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, necessarily – I’m a good capitalist. I was just a little shocked that it was over the $100 million mark – I would have expected maybe $40 million over the same period, perhaps…
George Bush parlayed his experience and connections as President to a top job at Carlyle Group — presumably not for chump change — Kissinger and Giuliani also have very lucrative careers — whether any of them hit the $100 million mark is anyone’s guess.
The difference between Clinton and the others is that Clinton, as far as I can tell hasn’t actually had a job since he left office.
As you mentioned, Bush went to work for the Carlyle Group. Giuliani and Kissinger both started their own consulting firms and had other business and book deals.
Clinton, on the other hand, has been involved in a number of campaigns, movements and started a couple of foundations. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with any of that, but the only thing I can find that he’s done for-profit has been the publication of his book. Thus, his only income would be based on royalties from that and speaker fees, so it’s a little more surprising that a guy who hasn’t had a real job in 8 years would be able to make nine figures in the same period.
Yeah, cuz the McCain’s aren’t worth over $100M. Oh wait…
Peter: Why is the media only concentrating on the Clinton’s? I guess that’s a rhetorical question as the answer is fairly obvious (because it’s easy, and everyone else is doing it).
Aaron: Why is it surprising that, collectively, they would make over $10M per year? Bill was paid $12M just for the writer’s fee for “My Life”. Not sure how much he made for the second book in ’07. Both were bestseller’s. Giuliani made mad loot on the speaking tour as well.