The Patriot Post® · Obama's Lucrative Speech Fee Assailed by Leftists

Barack Obama appears to be following in the footsteps of Bill and Hillary Clinton, both of whom leveraged their political careers to rake in $100 million dollars through overpriced speaking fees. Already, Obama has secured not one, but two, speeches for which he will earn a comfortable $400,000 apiece. Not bad for being “unemployed” for 99 days. By the way, Obama is slated to receive a handsome $60 million for his forthcoming memoir.

In the “Audacity of Hope,” Obama proclaimed: “The path of least resistance — of fund-raisers organized by the special interests, the corporate PACs, and the top lobbying shops — starts to look awfully tempting, and if the opinions of these insiders don’t quite jibe with those you once held, you learn to rationalize the changes as a matter of realism, of compromise, of learning the ropes.” Fast forward to today and this statement sounds less like something he’s opposing and more like a great description of his presidency.

Some powerful voices on the Left aren’t thrilled with the dichotomy of Obama’s supposed sentiments versus his deeds. Sen. Bernie Sanders responded, “I think it just speaks to the power of Wall Street and the influence of big money in the political process. I think it’s unfortunate.” And Sen. Elizabeth Warren stated, “I was troubled by [this revelation]. One of the things I talk about in [my] book is the influence of money. I describe it as a snake that slithers through Washington. And that it shows up in so many different ways here in Washington.”

Neither of course has room to talk, because both have tarnished their own reputations with double standards. Socialist Sanders is part of the 1%, but evades taxes like the plague. For her part, Warren lectures America about the importance of equal pay for women, yet the gap among her own staff dwarfs the national average. For all the Democrats’ talk about the evils of money (which is true to an extent), it sure is amazing how often they are the victims of their own drivel.