Hillary Clinton and her husband Bill collected $153 million in speaking fees since 2001. She knew she was running for president this year. So why did she accept $675,000 for three speeches to Goldman Sachs as recently as 2013?
Getting Paid
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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Cowboy-politician
Suckin’ up to the aristocracy
Not even sure if you like democracy
Tryin’ to establish an american royalty, a personal dynasty
I had a moment of genuine pity for Hillary Clinton. Seriously. There’s no joke coming.
I think we’ve all had that moment in life where we want something we simply aren’t capable of attaining, or something that the attaining of would take too much time or cost too much effort. Maybe you wanted to be a concert pianist and discovered that, after five years of solid practice, you were only very good. (In music, being “very good” is a polite way of saying “amateur.”) It doesn’t mean you aren’t capable. It doesn’t mean your playing isn’t pleasing to listen to, but you will always be in the garage band/community theater/Christmas pageant at the church circuit.
Hillary set her sights high, and she has sacrificed pretty much everything to get here. And now she’s at the edge. She is probably (not guaranteed, but probably) going to win the Democratic nomination. And she is probably (not guaranteed, but probably) going to lose the general election. (Please, nothing about how Bernie “will” lose the general election as soon as the Republican machine turns on him; save that pointless debate for another post cycle.)
But this is Hillary’s last turn at bat. She has spent years making sure the power structure knows that she will do as they ask. She has accumulated millions in payoffs from them. She has helped place a healthcare system that doesn’t cover everyone, and which provides massive profits to the pharmaceutical industry. (To comprehend how crappy Obamacare is, put it on the public education model: Only 80% of children will be “entitled” to receive an education, and there will be copays. The publishers will retail the book at $400, your kid pays a $25 copay for it, and all the profit goes right from the taxpayers through the government and into private businesses’ offshore accounts.)
She has sold her soul a chunk at a time. And now the cruelest irony of all. It took too long. The public finally got sick enough of the status quo. The Republicans are voting for Donald Trump. The clown car of traditional candidates hasn’t been able to slow him down. Sanders’ campaign, which may go down in flames, is like an immunization to bullshit. How many of his supporters are ONLY HIS supporters? The Democratic strategists are already openly admitting Hillary simply can’t WOW the crowds, and the turnout for Hillary will have to be enormous if she’s going to win.
And Hillary Clinton’s calculating mind has already figured all this out: For her to win is pretty much impossible. It’s putting the food money on the fourth race at the dogtrack. The long-game winning move (Democratic president in 2017) is for her to drop out, explaining that she simply isn’t popular enough to win the votes needed, and put her support behind Bernie Sanders. She would have to openly admit that she has been a fraud and a hypocrite.
But if she did it, and pleaded with her supporters to vote for Sanders to stop Trump, she’d win respect.
But she’s gone through so much to get to within a hand’s width of the presidency, she simply can’t.
All her maneuvers have led her to a dead-end. The only way out of it is to walk away in defeat. Morally, she would win; but morality seems to not be her strong suit anymore.
And that’s why I had a moment of genuine pity for her.
Well, on the whole very perceptive. I’m not sure she can’t win, personally I would put it at 50-50, but my brother, who usually has a feel for these things, thinks Trump is a shoe in. And pity I have none. It’s not that morality isn’t her strong suit any more, it was never her strong suit. I would trust Bill (well, not with my daughter) more than Hillary. Watching her talk you always get the feeling she’s never told the truth once, about anything.
Keep in mind, it was a moment of pity. Not 15 seconds of pity or a day. Just a moment. It excuses nothing, you’re right. But it gave me, I think, a little more insight into her behaviors and motivations.
Part of being a liberal is to look at all sides of an issue; to avoid black & white thinking, and to be accepting of those different than ourselves. I did pity HRC when Bill’s philandering came to light. Couldn’t have been easy to be in her position – even if she really didn’t care where Bill put his willy.
If she’s (s)elected, it won’t be all bad. It would break the glass ceiling and that’s a good thing. And much as I dislike lesser-evilism, she is definitely lesser-evil than Trump.
But not ready to give up on Sanders yet. It’s still a horse race, and the horse may yet learn to sing.
Trump is getting 35% of the Republican vote. One poll showed 49%, but that was an outlier, and Super Tuesday was still 35%.
Trump had 64% of the electable delegates on 29 Feb after winning just 35% of the vote, and now has just 47% of the electable delegates that have been chosen.
March 15 might tell the tale. If Trump wins both Ohio and Florida, he’s a near certainty for the nomination. If he loses both, he’ll have the plurality but not a majority of delegates, and it takes a majority to win. If he wins one and loses the other, things will remain very much up in the air, just as they are now.
Meanwhile, if Secretary Clinton somehow finds herself behind the Republican nominee in the polls, Bloomberg has promised to make sure we still get our First* Woman President!
I genuinely want to be impressed by Hillary’s resume and life story. I look at what she’s done in life and think, “Wow, she managed to accomplish all that while everyone probably underestimated her, and her supervisors and colleagues cracked lewd jokes and grabbed her tush. Forget Bill, she should have been president.”
Then I look at what she’s actually done with these jobs and at her worldview, as documented here and elsewhere, and thank the stars that Bernie and Jill Stein are running.
and they say crime doesn’t pay. Wasn’t the Clinton’s net worth something like 8M when he was first elected?
So – our law enforcement community is extreme reich wing. How much y’wanna bet they’ll wait until Hill’s got the nomination sewn up and THEN indict her on servergate?
That would be the moment to strike because once she gets elected, if they try anything, Obama will simply pardon her as it would genuinely be a case of partisan trickery at that point. If there’s a case to be made, it has to be done before the nomination becomes official.
On a side note: Saturday and Sunday are shaping up to be really good for Sanders. He’s probably going to win those liberal bastions of Nebraska and Kansas with good margins. He’ll also take the modern-era Sodom that is also known as Maine. Hillary will win Louisiana. I look forward to the media saying that the three states simply prove that Sanders should drop out.
Yeah, the much-ballyhooed Stupor Tuesday is heavily weighted towards the southern states with HRC’s inexplicable appeal. “She may be a corporate shill, but she’s got a fake accent almost as good as Dubya’s”
Sander’s showing was excellent all considered. It ain’t over ’till it’s over, y’all.
Americans are so obsessed with fame and the personality of politicians that they forget politics is about policies: That is to say, Laws, which are meant to last much longer than the individuals who write or impose them. Famous people like privacy somewhat (as we all do) and will not really show you their individual personality unless you personally know them. So all the “analysis” of politics based on our various assumptions of trustworthiness, sit down and have a beer with, etc etc is fame worship nonsense – a red herring to making a good voting decision.
That said, top leadership politicians are symbolic figureheads to a large degree, their power coming from the role people imagine they represent. So in that sense the personal legends – as mythical as they are – can be relevant.
So much focus on personality makes Americans very near sighted. It’s not like this same phenomenon doesn’t happen elsewhere, but its really striking in the USA, especially now, this election cycle.
I really like Bernie Sanders policy positions. But probably his imaginary personality that we concoct in the media will not be the politically correct one for such a belligerent country.
Beautiful third frame, Ted – loved it !…
Henri