Big money in speeches...

[kentuck]

Remember this?
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http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20121579,00.html

<snip>
Ronald and Nancy Reagan's visit to Japan last week was sponsored by the giant Fujisankei Communications Group, the country's largest media conglomerate, which spent a total of $7 million—that's 1 billion yen—on the Godzilla-size corporate goodwill visit. Sankei Shimbun, the group's flagship paper, led the fanfare with a banner headline that proclaimed MR. AMERICA IS COMING. And a flurry of commercials on the group's radio and TV stations made sure everyone knew that meant Reagan.

The former First Couple flew to Japan in a specially equipped Boeing 747, complete with bedroom and shower. They shared the plane, although not the bedroom or the shower, with a retinue of 20 staffers, a dozen Secret Service agents and 229 U.S. military dependents invited along for a free ride to visit their relatives stationed in Japan. After a welcoming ceremony at Tokyo's Haneda Airport, the Reagans toured an outdoor art museum owned by Fujisankei and then retired for the night to the company's guest house near Mount Fuji.

Their itinerary after that included a concert to benefit the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Foundation, meetings with business leaders and guest spots on Fujisankei-owned TV stations. The Reagans also had two days of official visits, including lunch with Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko.

But was it appropriate, critics asked, for a former President to cash in on his White House luster so blatantly? Of the four living ex-Presidents, Jimmy Carter seems to have done the least for financial gain, spending his time instead on church-, housing-and peace-related efforts. Richard Nixon has published seven books, but accepts no honoraria for public appearances. Gerald Ford has turned himself into a one-man industry, producing endorsements, speeches and public appearances and serving on corporate boards; last year alone he earned an estimated $1 million. All that, however, pales next to Reagan's $2 million single score in Japan. Says Henry F. Graff, a Columbia University professor who specializes in the Presidency: "The founding fathers-Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison—would have been stunned that an occupant of the highest office in this land turned it into bucks."

....more at link

[NYC_SKP]

1. During my entire 58 years of life, it's always been the assholes that charged huge sums for speaking

What presidents do post presidency is very telling.

I love my Jimmy Carter, humble and giving and a solid gold heart.

The rest can go to hell.

[AngryAmish]

3. I blame the audience

Why on earth would I sit in a room listening to a politician? . They have nothing to say. Yet the slack boweled yokels will sit there and eat up the trite pontifications of some jerk that managed to lie to enough people to get elected.

It is like the profession wrestling crowd of the 70s when many folks thought it was real combat. But then again many people who believe and follow politics lack the sophistication and personal insight of the average professional wrestling fan.

[NYC_SKP]

6. When universities do it, it's perverse. Others pay the price for favors, access.

And in the most criminal instances, it becomes a way of buying favors.

Imagine a city with a charismatic former mayor and his wife, a current member of the planning commission.

A developer wants to build a stadium but has to get some zoning changed.

He asks the mayor to come and speak at his club, or his daughter's graduation, or whatever in exchange for a $50,000 "honorarium".

Months later the developer gets the zoning change needed, the mayor's wife was one of the votes needed.

See how that works? It might not be illegal and it might not even have been a deliberate quid pro quo.

But it sure looks bad and it sure was careless of the mayor and his wife.

I wouldn't vote for either of them for any office.

That's where we are right now with the Clintons.

[MidschoolLiberal17]

2. I'm wondering....

How much money did they spend for themselves as the First Couple? I think they spent much more than the previous presidents....

[gopiscrap]

7. Welcome to DU

[ProdigalJunkMail]

4. enormous speaking fees are the norm, now

hell, Bill Clinton has pulled in over $104million in speaking fees since he left office.

sP

[Midwestern Democrat]

5. As this article makes clear, it used to be considered improper for a former President to cash in

on the presidency outside of writing his memoirs. In fact, the reason why congress implemented a presidential pension in 1958 was because Harry Truman was subsisting on little more than a small Army pension. It was Gerald Ford that broke the mold and started the cashing in on the luster of being a former president - it's highly ironic that the man who had the weakest claim to the office (the only President in US history who was not elected as either President or Vice President) was the first one to really cash in on it.