The Dead Guy

Bill Clinton

The Chicago Tribune reports in September 2006 former President Bill Clinton spoke at a fundraiser for Fortune Forum, a non-profit set up to tackle problems such as global warming, water shortages and disaster relief. Now, before you hail the chief - the event raised about $1.5 million, of which $450,000 went to Bill Clinton’s speaking fee.

That’s right, almost 1/3 of the money raised went straight into Bill Clinton’s bank account - where I am sure some was transferred over to the Clinton Family Foundation, where just about all of the Clintons’ ‘charitable’ donations of $10.2 million has gone since 2001. (as a side note: Bill is the President, Hillary is the Secretary/Treasurer, Chelsea is a director and Gloria Clinton is the CEO/Manager. Gloria earned $250,000 in 2006 from the CFF.)

$450,000. As also reported in the same article, Clinton gave two other speeches that day and the next while he was across the pond. One was for a London for-profit partnership and the other was in Dublin. The fees he charged for each of those? $280,000 apiece. So, in 2 days, he racked up over $1 million in speaking fees - almost half from the one non-profit speech, alone.

I can understand charging for speeches, even to a non-profit who is attempting to bring change in the world in respect to climate change and disaster relief, that’s what public speakers do. But to charge a non-profit almost twice the amount that is charged to for-profit company is not just dirty - it’s downright despicable.

Tags: charity, Chelsea, clinton, director, highway robbery, Hillary, New, partnership, politics, president, President Bill Clinton, problem, respect, speech, War

Over at CNN, Wolf Blitzer discusses the trend in Clinton supporters talking about the Electoral College votes of states she won the popular vote in this year’s primaries and how Clinton’s tally beats Obama’s (Blitzer: Is Clinton ahead in the only count that matters?). They put forward the (misconceived) notion that since her 14 popular vote wins represent 219 Electoral Votes (not counting Michigan and Florida, which would put her at 263) beats Obama’s wins representing 202 Electoral Votes.

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McCain & Greenspan

“The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should. I’ve got Greenspan’s book.” - Senator John McCain (December 18, 2007 in Salem, NH)

“I’m Republican and I support John McCain, who I know very well and who I respect a lot,” former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan (April 6, 2008 in Madrid, Spain)

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Tags: Alan Greenspan, amp, bush, DC, Deficits, democrat, economy, Federal, Intelligence, John, John McCain, McCain, New, politics, president, President Bush, republican, respect, state, Washington

Mark Penn

NAFTA has not been good to America’s working families. It has been especially hard on working families in Ohio and Pennsylvania. President Bill Clinton signed NAFTA into law. Senator Hillary Clinton promoted it publicly while she was First Lady and up until she began her campaign for President, continued to say that NAFTA has been good to America. And recently, her former Chief Strategist and -still- pollster, Mark Penn, was lobbying to give the country of Colombia free trade status with America.

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Tags: advice, AFSCME, America, American, amp, Bee, California, campaign, Center, Chief Strategist, CIA, clinton, endorsement, Free, Hillary, Hillary Clinton, International, Iowa, labor, law, local, Mark Penn, McCain, Michigan, NAFTA, National, Nevada, New, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, poll, polling, Pollster, president, President Bill Clinton, Presidential, SEIU, Senator Clinton, Senator Hillary, South Carolina, speech, state, Trade, War, word, work

Mark Penn

A big hullabaloo was made Sunday of Mark Penn “resigning” his position as Chief Strategist. However, Clinton Campaign Manager Maggie Williams states, “Mark, and Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates, Inc. will continue to provide polling and advice to the campaign.” This is what he (and his firm) did under his official position of “Chief Strategist”. Nothing has changed. He’s still doing the same work he did before, just without the title. This is nothing more than the ol’ 3-Card Monte trick and the “Jack” has been palmed so that the public can’t point him out.

***UPDATE (April 7 - 12:53 pm CDT) “Mr. Penn “is still going to be very much involved.”" - source The Atantic’s Marc Ambinder. Why did he resign? Well, it goes back to Free Trade and NAFTA. (more…)

Tags: advice, agreement, America, amp, Bee, Berland, Burson, campaign, Chief Strategist, CIA, clinton, clinton campaign, Colombian, congress, Free, government, Hillary, Hillary Clinton, investigation, law, Manager Maggie Williams, Mark Penn, Marsteller, monte, msnbc, NAFTA, New, New York, obama, Ohio, Policy, poll, polling, president, President Bill Clinton, Presidential, primary, Senator Clinton, star, state, Trade, truth, War, work

My first post in the blog is the math to the Democratic Presidential Nomination between Senator Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton. This has been a highly contentious and very close race between two strong candidates and their campaigns.

The nomination, by DNC rules, is decided by delegate majority. Currently the magic number is 2,024 delegates to win the nomination. Neither Obama nor Clinton are able to attain that number of delegates without a certain amount of superdelegates. However, Obama currently holds the lead in elected delegates, while Clinton holds the superdelegate lead. More importantly is that Clinton’s lead in superdelegates has been greatly reduced since Super Tuesday, so that she holds a lead of approximately 30 superdelegates (at one time, that lead was over 100).

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