Joseph Curl at The Washington Times has cobbled together reports on something the TV networks stink at covering: buckraking by former Democrat presidents (and their wives, who also sometimes run for president). Liberal journalists say conservative sex scandals are much bigger than Democratic sex scandals because of the hypocrisy. So........why isn't this hypocrisy a hot story?
Bloomberg reported Obama spoke to clients of Northern Trust Corp. for about $400,000 and he “reminisced about the White House for Carlyle Group LP, one of the world’s biggest private equity firms.” And he would “give a keynote speech at investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald LP’s health-care conference,” which happened Monday. The wire service Agence France-Presse reported the Cantor Fitzgerald speech was worth about $400,000.
At his apparent going rate, just those three speaking engagements we know about brought Mr. Obama a $1.2 million haul. He hasn’t even been out of office a year, and the very places he bashed while in office are paying him big bucks to swing by and speak.
So of course the media has been all over the story, exposing the raw hypocrisy, right? Wrong. Totally wrong. No one’s said hardly a word, barely a peep.
A Nexis search shows the networks pretty much haven't peeped. Here’s one exception: Mornings with Maria on Fox Business on September 19:
MARIA BARTIROMO: Meanwhile, President Obama, no longer Wall Street's enemy, apparently, you may remember the many times he lashed out against bankers like this.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When I took office, we were in the midst of this historic financial crisis, brought on by reckless and irresponsible speculation on Wall Street. I mean, I do think at a certain point, you've made enough money.
BARTIROMO: Well, he's making the money now. He might be Wall Street's newest fat cat. FOX Business first reported that Obama had spoken at the Carlyle Group's annual investor conference in Washington last week. It's unclear how much he was paid for that. But last April, he pocketed $400,000 for his speech at a Cantor Fitzgerald event. Governor Huckabee, your reaction?
MIKE HUCKABEE: Well, first of all, I don't care if he gets paid well, I just care that he's such a hypocrite about it.
In the same news cycle as Curl, Kate Kelly at The New York Times reported this in fairly benign tones in Tuesday’s Business Day section. The headlined was "A Piece of Obama’s Post-Presidential Life: Sandwiches and Speeches." Kelly included the juicy details about the speech costs and the book deal and the $8.1 million home in DC....in paragraph #6. But naturally, the Obama spokesman says some of the speech fees are going into Obama’s charity, a typical Clintonesque spin.
This was how Kelly began:
An hour inside Barack Obama's post-presidential life included boxed sandwiches, scores of money managers and a treatise on health care reform.
Those were the main ingredients on Monday when Mr. Obama spoke in Manhattan at a conference on health care sponsored by the brokerage firm Cantor Fitzgerald -- at least his ninth paid speech since leaving office.
Steel-jawed and wearing a dark suit and an American-flag lapel pin, Mr. Obama was reserved in describing the dogfight over health care in Washington, which threatens to derail his signature legislative accomplishment, the Affordable Care Act.
During his 25-minute prepared remarks, Mr. Obama's laugh lines were few, and his swipes at the Trump administration even fewer. Instead, he undertook a professorial review of what the health care law had accomplished, considered its remaining problems, and swept through some potential solutions.
The Washington Post was a bit more pointed last Wednesday -- on page A-17 -- in a Tory Newmyer story headlined "Obama's Wall Street speeches fail to spark Democratic outrage." So the networks are among the Democrats who can't locate any outrage. Where are the Cuomos and the Stephanopoulos-es?
Curl did some math, comparing Obama to Hillary Clinton’s post-Secretary of State ka-ching:
Mrs. Clinton made 92 total paid speeches between 2013 and 2015, just after leaving her job as secretary of state, and charged anywhere from $250,000 to $300,000, according to reports. Using the low end of that scale, she pulled down $23 million — much of it from places like Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street financial institutions.
If Mr. Obama follows that path, he’ll haul in nearly $37 million before the 2018 midterm elections.
And he doesn’t even need the money. He and wife Michelle reportedly will be paid $60 million for their memoirs. The couple owns three or four houses (who can keep track), in Hawaii, Palm Springs, Chicago and beyond.
So why do it? Why risk the horrible media reports that could come in the face of such craven hypocrisy?
Because he can. And he knows no one will say boo. He’s right, too.
Remember: If you point out the former president’s hypocrisy, you’re a racist.
