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.