Looks like Obama's on the cusp of fulfilling his dream

[truedelphi]

190. Like Clinton himelf would say - it depends on what your definition of "bankrupt" is.

Did the couple actually file for bankruptcy. No. But like a Yahoo news citation mentions, "The Washington Post reports that when Clinton left office, he and Hillary were in debt more than $10 million dollars, though Reuters specifies $5.5 million with $1.5 million in assets. Both Bill and Hillary wrote best selling books to begin to reduce their debt."


Colloquially, the term bankrupt can refer to being without the means to pay bills that are outstanding and are larger than the assets you have on hand. Legally, it means you have entered into a court agreement and a bankruptcy has been filed, with conditions that must be reached, with certain personal assets protected, but other things, like sometimes retirement monies, are dispensed to those to whom the party owes the debt.

The fact is that around the time they left the WH, they had massive amounts of legal debt. Ten million is what Yahoo News citation relates the WaPo piece had stated. The WaPO piece is not found on the internet - often the URL a newspaper holds expires after a certain time.

Perhaps insolvency would be the better word.

Had those law firms or attorneys to whom they owed the monies set up a court date and sued the couple, they would have probably filed for bankruptcy. And of course, even then, the Clintons would not be living in a van down by the river. Most states allow people to keep their residence, their vehicles and personal effects.

If I remember correctly, their friends helped them pay their bills. And/or maybe some of the attorneys involved put the payments on "hold."

In talking about this aspect of their lives, I hold no grudge against them. It was a tremendously disgusting spectacle to watch the Republicans sink so much money into the Whitewater investigation, and then to have the Monica Lewinsky scandal become "impeachable."

One thing I'd like to add - Clinton was approached by the Powers that Be to go and have a nasty and brutal all out war against the people of Iraq. Clinton refused them the war, and six weeks later, the Monica scandal hit the newspapers and TV news outlets.