How is it that Obama is worth only 1.4 million with two best sellers on the book market?

[jasmine621]

something sounds fishy here with this report on CNN. It was reported that Hillary was worth 34 million, and Obama 1.4 million. I doubt seriously that that is true. What did he do, lose all that money in the Committee Meeting poker games?

[VolcanoJen]

1. He probably spent it on drugs

I AM TOTALLY KIDDING!

:spank:

[H2O Man]

9. You are

and the OP is serious. Yet the text is the same.

[Blue-Jay]

11. haha!

:rofl:

[Radical Activist]

22. Awesome

[NJSecularist]

2. Because Obama has to pay his publisher

And that's his only big source of income after his Senate job.

[AZ Criminal JD]

15. Authors don't pay publishers, publishers pay authors

Unless you're claiming that Obama paid someone to publish his book.

[NJSecularist]

17. Actually, I meant to say that his publisher gets a share of his profits

My bad.

[libertee]

3. no there weren't many books in the market.

[msongs]

4. most of them were probably remaindered, which is typical for politician's books nt

[bilgewaterbill]

5. He didn't get a $8 mil advance. He needs a better agent.

[Wombatzu]

6. how much do you think best-sellers are worth for authors?

the real question is: where do the Clintons get all their money? let's look into that.

[K Gardner]

7. Book royalties probably aren't that much and are not paid out weekly.. and.. he makes

what a US Senator makes, period. With a home and family to support, he's NOT a multi-millionaire.

[flpoljunkie]

8. Obama said they had only recently paid off their college loans,and they bought a new house, which I

expect is most of their net worth.

[Skinner]

10. Writing a bestseller (or two) does not guarantee that one will be a multimillionaire.

But let's not forget that $1.4 million is not chump change. That's good money, and perfectly consistent with the fact that he has written some bestselling books.

I don't know where they got the number $34 million for Hillary, but I can promise you that that number is the combined wealth of both her and her husband. Her book was a monster hit, maybe one of the most popular nonfiction books ever, but I highly doubt she made $34 million from it.

[Little Star]

21. Didn't Hillary write two books?.......

Living History and It takes a village?

[Skinner]

24. Yes. She also wrote a book about entertaining at the White House.

I was referring to Living History. I think the other books were modestly successful. But they weren't massive blockbuster smash hits like Living History.

[juajen]

27. Don't forget, she won a grammy for the audio version of that book.

I don't know how much that made her, but I would be interested in how it breaks down.

[juajen]

26. I believe "It Takes a Village" proceeds were given to charity.

Or, at least, I think I remember that. Anybody else?

[juajen]

25. She might have, Skinner

I remember somebody saying about that time that her overseas royalties were huge. Do you know anything about that?

[Thrill]

12. He released his tax returns. Someone posted it yesterday

He only got like 500,000 for the books I believe

[ElsewheresDaughter]

13. maybe that's why he needs the steath GOP funding

[ingac70]

16. Like Hillary's fundraiser with Murdoch? n/t.

[papau]

19. aha - its the breakfast speaking at News Corp and the $2300 contribution that makes her $34m

[blogslut]

18. prove it

Prove he has stealth GOP funding

[sunonmars]

14. Maybe he had to pay back Rezko

[papau]

23. Rezko sent his money to Syria - Is Obama hiding his there? - Na - no real evidence - but???

[dkf]

20. Bill has made an estimated $40 million from speaking fees since 2001.

"Talk is cheap, unless you are a charismatic former US president with a notorious personal history. Since leaving office in 2001, Bill Clinton has amassed an estimated $40m (£20m) from speaking fees."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2020458,00.html

"Many of Bill Clinton's six-figure speeches have been made to companies whose employees and political action committees have been among Hillary Clinton's top backers in her Senate campaigns. The New York investment giant Goldman Sachs paid him $650,000 for four speeches in recent years. Its employees and PAC have given her $270,000 since 2000 -- putting it second on the list of her most generous political patrons.

The banking firm Citigroup, whose employees and PAC have been Hillary Clinton's top source of campaign donations, with more than $320,000, paid her husband $250,000 for a speech in France in 2004. Last year, it committed $5.5 million for Clinton's Global Initiative to help encourage entrepreneurship and financial education among the poor."

"Two-thirds of the former president's speaking money has come from foreign sources. Outside the United States, clients are willing to pay more to hear him speak, Clinton is able to conduct his charitable work on AIDS, and he can avoid upstaging his wife on the American political scene, associates say.

Foreign clients have included Saudi Arabia's Dabbagh investment firm, which paid $600,000 for two speeches, and China's JingJi Real Estate Development Group, run by a local Communist Party official, which paid $200,000 for a speech. The Mito City Political Research Group, a Japanese political studies center, paid Clinton $400,000 for a 2002 speech about politics.

Besides Goldman Sachs, the two firms that have paid Clinton the most over the past six years are foreign-based. Gold Services International, an event organizer based in Bogota, Colombia, brought Clinton to Latin America in the summer of 2005 for $800,000 in speaking fees. The Power Within, a motivational-speech company in Toronto, paid Clinton $650,000 for speeches in Canada in 2005 and brought him back for an undisclosed sum in 2006. The company was founded by Salim Khoja, a Kenyan immigrant who years earlier was convicted of stock fraud and was barred for life from the brokerage business."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022202189_pf.html

[Benhurst]

28. There are best sellers and then there are best sellers. Most don't make

"Harry Potter" millions.

[Straight Shooter]

29. He's got a good accountant. n/t

[Beregond2]

30. Books

Authors don't make much money off of books, unless they are Stephen King.

[scheming daemons]

31. His tax returns are out there for all to see... TRANSPARENCY...

You ask the question.... but the answer is easy for you to look up.


Now ... with Hillary, we won't know where her income comes from because she's hiding her tax returns.