Can you spell tone deaf? H-I-L-L-A-R-Y. Hillary Clinton: We Were 'Dead Broke' Upon Leaving WH

[karynnj]

254. Tone deaf is absolutely correct, but it likely was technically accurate - if only briefly

I am certain that the Clintons had huge legal bills. They had to fight a huge number of things in court due to the many RW charges. They actually raised money to cover some of the bills incurred by people around them who became collateral damage. I would not be surprised that - at the moment they left the WH they owed more than their assets.

However Hillary got an advance of $8 million for her book that was written while she was Senator. Bill Clinton then got an advance of $15 million for his. I assume that $24 million was far more than there bills - and she already was a Senator when they left the WH . So, there was likely never a point where they really came close to actually having any consequences of being broke. Consider that they immediately bought two expensive homes.

Here, the problem really is that she is going to far to defend something that is not illegal. Why not just say that they know that they and their foundation have a bigger impact if it has the money behind it to do the kinds of things that their values say need doing. Elections take money too.

The problem is that anyone who ever faced real financial problems will know that the Clintons were not even close to having to deal with "being broke". At that point, they both had annual compensation which they deserved and which placed them as a couple in the top 1% - though not .01%. Imagine the reaction if Kerry had spoken of the years he genuinely could not afford homes in both MA and DC. Though true, it was also true (as we saw this week) that his grandparents had a large estate in Brittany France that he and his cousins visited in summers and that the extended Forbes family had estates as well. For him to do anything other than say he was very fortunate would have backfired because even if on paper he personally had few assets at points, he never faced the real problems that people who are really broke face.

It is true that the Clintons really did make far less than most of their peers in the years that Clinton was a governor in Arkansas. This was a sacrifice. However, the same could be said for any high powered individual who chooses public service over working for a corporation. (Look at John Edwards, who made millions as a trial lawyer - Bill Clinton could easily have done the same.)

No one wants a former President to live with money problems. However, that was never a threat. That is why they get $200,000 a year. Not to mention the money from writing books.