General Discussion
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Barack Obama:
a) Is no longer President*;
b) Cannot be President again*;
...and.....
c) Is highly unlikely he'll ever run for any sort of public office again.
So then can someone explain to me why anyone paying for him to speak to them has any bearing on anything whatsoever?
*Unfortunately the case, no matter how much we wish it to be otherwise
mcar
(42,210 posts)Me, I think we've got lots more to worry about.
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,788 posts)shraby
(21,946 posts)with it than the people who are paying him.
murielm99
(30,656 posts)I agree with your post, but I wish we could move on.
Doreen
(11,686 posts)With all of the experience he has obtained through out his life and the presidency he has things he can teach people. He is basically being paid to teach. THAT IS WHY!!
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)More_Cowbell
(2,190 posts)Making money hand over foot. It's crazy.
theaocp
(4,223 posts)is that is might have been NOT about more bitching without any sensible destination other than further bitching. Thanks for nothing.
world wide wally
(21,719 posts)bucolic_frolic
(42,670 posts)His role in the financial crisis was invaluable to them, or
they want to make sure he stays on board with no 'tell-all' books, or
in any subsequent (financial) crisis, he is still a heavyweight source of perspective, or
somebody there wanted to talk to him.
Lucky Luciano
(11,242 posts)However, such an argument is specious since, while Obama was great for capitalists (whether capitalists will admit it or not), he did also try hard to check them in spite of the Republican party apparatus united against him. Note how all the many donors from the financial sector for Obama in 2008 switched to Romney in 2012.
W and Cheney were all about allowing capitalists to run roughshod over the country and if they were to receive similar payments for services rendered, they would have had million dollar speeches at various oil companies and military contractors on a weekly basis.
Bottom line - Obama is popular and highly sought after - and his agent gets top dollar. There is no conflict of interest and no payments for services rendered.
JTFrog
(14,274 posts)Chakaconcarne
(2,387 posts)Not like any other president before him got paid to speak.
They are worried that in his public life, Obama is going to cause waves.
TNNurse
(6,911 posts)He is a private citizen, what is the problem? She admitted she did not have an answer.
bhikkhu
(10,708 posts)Lots of people hoped that was all over when he left the presidency. I'm just fine if its not - there's a lot he can still accomplish.
And then there's the echo of the criticism of Hillary's speaking engagements, which I always thought was a bunch of crap. She accepted money to speak at big corporate to-do's, and that money went to the Clinton Foundation, which does a great deal of good. And when she spoke it was in advocacy of her positions, and how the listeners could do better in the world. Same as when she was on the Walmart board - she was added because the corporation realized it had a diversity problem on its board, and in its corporate culture. Hillary worked there to advocate for more equality and opportunity for people, for the advancement of women, equal pay for equal work and so forth...
It aggravates me when people who's positions we are all in favor of are pilloried for advocating those positions in any other role than "preaching to the choir".
That Guy 888
(1,214 posts)"Maybe Obama Is Doing Paid Speeches Because He Thinks Big-Money Special Interests Are Fine" - By Ben Mathis-Lilley slate.com
...Let's review some of what happened during Obama's presidency.
The advisers who helped him run his inspiring 2008 campaign all became big-money corporate lobbyists.
He backed the Affordable Care Act's creation of a health-care system that's very generous to the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries, both of which were consulted extensively during the composition of the the bill.
He appointed bankers like Tim Geithner, Larry Summers, and William Daley to some of the most influential positions in his administration.
He chose not to push for criminal prosecutions of financial executives whose involvement in fraud had helped cause the 2008 economic crash.
Obama says he's against this kind of thing. On April 24, in fact, one of the topline messages of his first post-presidency public appearance was that special-interest lobbyingand the influence of money on politics more broadlyis one of the primary obstacles to making progress on problems such as economic inequality, climate change, and crime:
What is preventing us from tackling [the United States' problems] and making more progress really has to do with our politics and our civic life. It has to do with the fact that because of things like political gerrymandering our parties have moved further and further apart and it's harder and harder to find common ground. Because of money and politics. Special interests dominate the debates in Washington in ways that don't match up with what the broad majority of Americans feel.
One thing that's nice about Obama is that his words usually match his deeds. But the words and deeds just don't match up in this case, and they haven't since he campaigned in 2008 on a platform of representing grass roots Americans against big-money corporate lobbyists and then went and did all the things I listed above.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/04/28/barack_obama_s_cantor_fitzgerald_speech_may_reflect_his_true_beliefs_about.html
..."the "revolving door" influence of corporate special interests" keeps turning and all is right within the Beltway.
HeartachesNhangovers
(814 posts)was only for discussing relevant / important things, just about everyone would be banned.