Stop policing Obama's money: Van Jones' "poverty tour" suggestion is absurd

[DonViejo]

MONDAY, MAY 1, 2017 04:58 PM EDT

Stop policing Obama’s money: Van Jones’ “poverty tour” suggestion is absurd

Barack Obama isn't even president any more and he's still being held to a higher standard than his peers

D. WATKINS

Barack Obama will earn $400,000 for a speech he is scheduled to give in September at a health care conference produced by a Wall Street investment firm, and people have opinions about it.

“I hope [Obama] will do a tour — go to Appalachia, go to Native American reservations where they’re shoving these pipelines down their throats and they don’t even have clean, running water. Go to South Central, go to the Arizona border where you have a lot of poverty,” author and commentator Van Jones said on CNN yesterday.

Why does everybody want to count the Obamas’ money? Can they live? Every president and first lady gets to leave office and be overpaid for the speeches they give to people with too much money.

“If he would do a poverty tour first — from a moral point of view, it would be great for him to do,” Jones added.

I’m pretty sure that Barack Obama knows what poverty looks like. What is a poverty tour, anyway? Should Obama hone his rap skills, dress up in a leather suit, charter a private jet and swing from ghetto to ghetto, from reservation to reservation, before doing a huge close-out set in Appalachia?

more
http://www.salon.com/2017/05/01/stop-policing-obamas-money-van-jones-poverty-tour-suggestion-is-absurd/

[Thrill]

1. Why? He doesn't have to run for office any more

He doesn't have to appease people any more.

[Skittles]

9. correct: he can be himself

[frazzled]

2. Well, first of all

Obama has been to these places. But more important, I find it odd that we see such outrage about a speaking fee when we do not even yet know what he plans to do with the money he earns from such engagements. Maybe it will go into his new foundation, maybe he will use it to donate to organizations that fight poverty or candidates or groups he supports. Or maybe he will use it to install gold toilets and paper the walls in dollar bills. We don't know.

We also don't know what he will say to these people on the subject of health care. He's certainly invested in the topic. Maybe he will try to convince these investment bankers how it is in their interest and the economy's interest to make sure that everyone has access to health care. Maybe he's making a strong economic argument in support of such universal coverage in order to gain their support and to oppose the Republican attempts to return to the bad old days.

There's a lot we don't know. But of course, everybody has an opinion on what they don't know.

[MagickMuffin]

3. + 1: My thoughts as well

Pretzel shaped logic being twisted into non-logical assumptions. A continuous infinity loop!!!

[TNLib]

4. People need to leave him alone

He's served and served well and took a whole lot of shit from the racists in this country.

Let him make his money wherever he chooses.

[Me.]

5. As Far As The Going Rate Is Concerned

PBO isn't even at the top of the heap. Hillary Duff and others make 500k and even Kevin Federline comes close at 300K. Will there come a day when this man is not being criticized by members of HIS OWN PARTY and Independents. Isn't it enough that 45 and those country wrecking cowards in the WH blame him for everything wrong in the country/world? Geesh, doesn't the guy get a break from anyone?

[haele]

6. Why does former President Obama have to be held at a higher standard? And so quickly after leaving?

He's got to have time to think about what he is going to be doing now that he doesn't have to lead a nation anymore; heck, of all the presidents that have gone into philanthropy or continued some other form of national service after their time in office have typically taken a year or two to get back into the spotlight. T. Roosevelt doesn't really count. He was trying to continue "Theodore Rex", and his actions were that of someone who was trying to stay in political leadership, not go on to a form of national service.

Look, the Clinton initiative didn't start taking off for two/three years. President Carter has been the only former president I've even know of that had become a serious "hands on" philanthropist and diplomat after serving, and even then, he didn't really return to post presidential work until sometime in the mid-1980's.


President Obama worked as a community organizer in Chicago. That isn't "moral" enough for a background? He doesn't know about poverty? Oh, BTW - what does Van Jones know about rural poverty? What does he know about the structural social differences between regional rural areas - the rural South, Mid-West, Northeast, West, Coastal areas? Or the economic differences?
Sure, the Obamas can travel - again, for the umpteenth time since 2008 - down to Appalachia - BTW, North Carolina Appalachia is culturally and economically far different than, say, Tennessee...or to the Indian Reservations, which, as President, he had travelled before...Mr. Jones thinks he knows best what President Obama should do after the first ~200 days out of office?

Really. Let the man have time to gather funding together along with a plan for what he wants to do for the future.

I think there some mouthpieces who consider themselves a "voice of their people" who expecting too much of one person, no matter how gifted. I think maybe some people have created a symbol to become a target, rather than a human being who has the free will to determine how best to serve society after leaving the highest office in the nation.

Let Obama be Obama. It was a tough 8 years, and he isn't magic, despite how pop culture likes to paint him.

Haele

[nikibatts]

7. When he is black.

[JHan]

8. great post. Endorsed %100

[Hekate]

12. +1000

[Blue_Tires]

10. Jones has lost the plot...

[sheshe2]

11. WTF?

What is Van Jones doing with his money to help the poor...NET WORTH 1.1 MILLION.