A while back Hillary Clinton, who is right now the frontrunner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, was explaining to Dianne Sawyer that when she and Bill left the White House in 2000, they were “dead broke” and “deeply in debt.” Actually, according to their tax returns for the previous year, they earned $416,039, so they must have had quite a few expenses.
Which they did, because, as Hillary told Ms. Sawyer with a straight face, “We struggled to, you know, piece together the resources for mortgages, for houses … You know, it was not easy.”
Note the plural, “mortgages” … “houses” … Woe is them. They had to pony up for two different residences, one a $1.7 million home in Chappaqua, NY, and the other a $2.85 million home on Embassy Row in Washington, D.C. (five bedrooms, six baths). I wonder how much sympathy Hillary’s anguish elicited from the millions of Americans who are currently “under water” — who owe more in mortgage payments on their one, and only, home, than that home is worth?
What Hillary neglected to tell Ms. Sawyer was that, before she left the White House she was given an $8 million advance to write her memoirs. Also, the year they left the White House, hubby Bill began raking in millions in speaking fees — approximately $107 million since 2000 — and today both of them command in excess of $200,000 per speech.
Speaking of speaking, Hillary’s conditions for speaking, as spelled out in her contract for speaking engagements, read like a Royal Edict. For one speech she required “a presidential glass panel teleprompter and a qualified operator,” plus “a fee of $1,000 for the services of a stenographer.”
In all of her contracts she demands final approval of every detail, including who introduces her, and the “sets, backdrops, banners, scenery, logos, settings, etc.” Also, “The topic, format and length of the lecture or speech shall be at the sole discretion of the Speaker.”
All this is galling enough, but when it was suggested to her in another interview that the average American, today struggling to make ends meet, might have trouble identifying with her present lifestyle, and therefore might not vote for her as president, she replied, “But they [the voters] don’t see me as part of the problem, because we pay ordinary income tax, unlike a lot of people who are truly well-off … and we’ve done it through dint of hard work.”
Hard work? Construction is hard work. Digging ditches is hard work. Even building $2.85 million houses from the ground up is hard work. Flying around the country in private jets to give 45-minute speeches for $200,000 a pop is not even close to hard work.
Great column. I’m not sure how honest she actually is. I have a feeling, though, that we’ll be saddled with her come next election.