Dead Broke?

The next President of the United States isn’t having a very good week.

First there was her declaration of family insolvency that turned out upon further review to be less than accurate. Most Americans wouldn’t describe an income of over 12 million dollars for the year in question as “dead broke.” My gut tells me that there are roughly 50 million truly dead broke Americans who might take issue with Mrs. Clinton’s tale of woe about how tough it was to scare up enough money to purchase “houses” (plural) after leaving office. Luckily for her, our current governor was there to make it rain at the banks. No down payment, no problem. We’ve got a special low rate deal only for ex-presidents!

Of course, this is actually an American success story. The Clinton’s are the poster couple for the American Dream. Back in the day, Hillary managed to turn $1000 into $100,000 practically overnight by investing in that most ruthlessly capitalistic enterprise known to mankind….the cattle futures market. Now, perhaps the most hopelessly dull public speaker of our generation gets paid $200,000 to stand up in front of a room of people and talk for thirty minutes. Her husband, most definitely not the most hopelessly dull speaker of our generation commands $500,000 for his speeches (Hillary is always battling that glass ceiling thing). Along the way, Mrs. Clinton found time to write a book for which she was handsomely compensated without having to acknowledge the existence of her ghost writer. Now, she has released another best seller about her time as Secretary of State for which she cashed a 14 million dollar advance. Is America a great country, or what?

Then there was her testy exchange with what should have been the most sympathetic interviewer imaginable…a female reporter from NPR. The reporter asked a question about her “evolving” views on gay marriage and quite timidly suggested that perhaps Mrs. Clinton had made political calculations on the issue. Hillary was having none of it. In the current mad rush to rewrite the history of human sexuality on this subject, politicians on the left have turned themselves into pretzels trying to justify an almost unanimously held opinion from a mere 30 years ago, ie…that marriage was between one man and one woman. For Progressives, it has been a race to prove their bonafides. “I knew a gay person once back in 1972 and we were best friends!” “Well, that’s nothing; I once went to a Liberace concert!!”  Listening to Hillary lecture her interviewer brought back memories of my Government class in high school. “Today, we will discuss how a bill becomes a law.” It was tedious and totally untrue since at no time during the lecture did the word “money” come up. Same thing with Hillary’s interview, at no time did she say, “Are you kidding me? In 1993 gay marriage was the punch line of a joke, not a serious policy consideration. You’re busting my chops on this now? Me, the next President of the United States?”

Still, she will recover. She’s inevitable. It’s been in all the papers.