# Should Obama be criticized for accepting $400,000 for a Wall Street speaking engagement? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 27, 2017, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-obama-be-criticized-for-accepting-400-000-for-a-wall-street-speaking-engagement/785398 "2017-04-27T22:11:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-obama-be-criticized-for-accepting-400-000-for-a-wall-street-speaking-engagement/785398/41 "2017-04-28T14:20:30Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > Yes it will be interesting to see what he says there. Don’t expect to find out unless you attend. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-obama-be-criticized-for-accepting-400-000-for-a-wall-street-speaking-engagement/785398/42 "2017-04-28T14:41:22Z")
There won’t be any reports of it? ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-obama-be-criticized-for-accepting-400-000-for-a-wall-street-speaking-engagement/785398/43 "2017-04-28T14:55:29Z")
Politicians who take large sums of money for little to no work after leaving office make it appear that they are being rewarded for being compliant while in office. It is hypocritical in that bemoaned greed and income inequality and now is trying to grab as much as he can even though he is already in the top 1% of the top 1%. Being hypocritical is not that big a deal but the impropriety of it should preclude anyone in his position from accepting such a deal. Unfortunately, modern politics seems to be very efficient at weeding out politicians capable of shame or propriety. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-obama-be-criticized-for-accepting-400-000-for-a-wall-street-speaking-engagement/785398/44 "2017-04-28T14:58:13Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Don’t expect to find out unless you attend. Ever attended one of these? ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-obama-be-criticized-for-accepting-400-000-for-a-wall-street-speaking-engagement/785398/45 "2017-04-28T15:03:50Z")
I’m a capitalist, so I don’t mind Obama doing this (although if I worked for Cantor Fitzgerald, I’d probably rather see my share of the $400,000 in the form of a Christmas bonus rather than listen to him drone on for 45 minutes - see, capitalist). I can understand how it doesn’t sit well with the OWS Democrats, but oh well. ETA: the closest comparable experience I’ve had was attending a Microsoft conference where Bill Clinton gave the keynote. It was not Slick Willy’s best speech, to put it mildly. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-obama-be-criticized-for-accepting-400-000-for-a-wall-street-speaking-engagement/785398/46 "2017-04-28T15:20:10Z")
As I mentioned during the discussions of Hillary’s speeches, these events are far less about the content of the speech and more about the firm or organization showing off their ability to get high-powered speakers in (and, for the execs, to be able to schmooze with the celebrity over drinks afterwards). The speaker will tailor their message to appear insightful, with a few good jokes scattered therein, but will avoid anything that might make the audience uncomfortable in order to ensure that similar organizations with deep pockets will also want to hire them. This is the way of things. I’d be very surprised if Obama said anything of any substance in these speeches (or that Clinton had at hers). They’re basically the equivalent of blog posts. Anything really juicy would be said quietly and off the record at the post-event drinks reception, because that’s how business gets done. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-obama-be-criticized-for-accepting-400-000-for-a-wall-street-speaking-engagement/785398/47 "2017-04-28T15:41:49Z")
It’d be hypocritical if he’s ACTUALLY fought against Wall Street rather than simply giving speeches. As AK84 said > [@AK84](#): > > Obama. The guy who let Wall Street off with zero accountability for the 2008 and continued to pour eye watering sums into the banks. He could not have done more if he had fellated each CEO personally. So, in a sense, it’s just a thank you note for helping them so much. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-obama-be-criticized-for-accepting-400-000-for-a-wall-street-speaking-engagement/785398/48 "2017-04-28T15:41:50Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > Perception is reality. > > While in office, Obama’s supporters on the Left perceived the president as someone who was progressive and as someone who tried to fight against the system. The accepted that there is a pragmatic side to governing and that he sometimes had to settle for compromises that were less than ideal. I would phrase it differently, as someone who considers himself part of the “Left.” We perceived the president as someone who was progressive and as someone who tried _to fight to improve the system_. He was always in favor of dialog, including with Wall Street. It was one of his strengths, and I’m not bothered one bit by him speaking to a group there now. That’s what uniters do. > [@](#): > > “All of us share this world for but a brief moment in time. The question is whether we spend that time focused on what pushes us apart, or whether we commit ourselves to an effort — a sustained effort — to find common ground, to focus on the future we seek for our children, and to respect the dignity of all human beings.” ---
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-obama-be-criticized-for-accepting-400-000-for-a-wall-street-speaking-engagement/785398/49 "2017-04-28T15:45:45Z")
Seems like a nothing burger. Obama isn’t president anymore, the man can earn a living in a way he sees fit. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-obama-be-criticized-for-accepting-400-000-for-a-wall-street-speaking-engagement/785398/50 "2017-04-28T15:51:09Z")
It’s bullshit. Would anyone care if Obama spoke at Proctor & Gamble or General Electric? No. But because big banks are “evil”, apparently speaking at them is not allowed. ---
**Author:** ![sleestak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-obama-be-criticized-for-accepting-400-000-for-a-wall-street-speaking-engagement/785398/51 "2017-04-28T16:07:36Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Which is a problem by the way. People in public service often do not make a lot of money, Obama’s salary was $400,000 a year. This deters people from joining public life and also encourages corruption. Not that Obama is going to be corrupt, but he will have two kids college soon, entering middle age for him and his wife and I think one of his elderly inlaws in still alive, all in all, the most financially demanding time of his life. > > He will take these opportunities. Didn’t Trump proposed ban on post service lobbying jobs get criticized for this reason? That he was banning the only possible post government job for many Horsepucky. At least in Obamas case. So Obama, before taxes, walked away from the Presidency with 3.2 million before any book deals, etc. His housing/food/travel were paid for during that time. And that doesn’t include the salary he earns for the rest of his life from the government which is worth 205,700 a year. Plus free health care and Secret Service protection. Invested wisely he will get ~300,000 a year to without eating the principle, before taxes. The Obamas book deal is worth [60 million](http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-book-deal-2017-2). Invested wisely, he get 6 mil a year before taxes. This is after the following: 1.9 million advance for ‘The Audacity of Hope’ in 2005. 1.25 million in 2005 from additional book royalties 675,000 in book royalties in 2006 3.3 million in 2007 from book royalties (Total ~7 mill) There is [more](https://www.aol.com/article/finance/2017/01/11/barack-obama-s-net-worth-as-he-leaves-the-white-house/21652889/), but it gives you an idea… The idea that Obama needs to go slumming to the bankers for money is silly, unless he spends money like a drunken sailor. Note, Obama certainly has the right to do this. However, from my perspective, it looks bad. Obama in 2009: > [@](#): > > I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street Obama in 2017: Yep, I’ll take that 400,000 from the fat cat bankers on Wall Street… Slee ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-obama-be-criticized-for-accepting-400-000-for-a-wall-street-speaking-engagement/785398/52 "2017-04-28T16:11:06Z")
> [@sleestak](#): > > Horsepucky. At least in Obamas case. > > So Obama, before taxes, walked away from the Presidency with 3.2 million before any book deals, etc. His housing/food/travel were paid for during that time. And that doesn’t include the salary he earns for the rest of his life from the government which is worth 205,700 a year. Plus free health care and Secret Service protection. > > Invested wisely he will get ~300,000 a year to without eating the principle, before taxes. > > The Obamas book deal is worth [60 million](http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-book-deal-2017-2). Invested wisely, he get 6 mil a year before taxes. > > This is after the following: > 1.9 million advance for ‘The Audacity of Hope’ in 2005. > 1.25 million in 2005 from additional book royalties > 675,000 in book royalties in 2006 > 3.3 million in 2007 from book royalties (Total ~7 mill) > > There is [more](https://www.aol.com/article/finance/2017/01/11/barack-obama-s-net-worth-as-he-leaves-the-white-house/21652889/), but it gives you an idea… > > The idea that Obama needs to go slumming to the bankers for money is silly, unless he spends money like a drunken sailor. > Slee Where are you investing that gets you a 10% return? ---
**Author:** ![sleestak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-obama-be-criticized-for-accepting-400-000-for-a-wall-street-speaking-engagement/785398/53 "2017-04-28T16:27:06Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Where are you investing that gets you a 10% return? The stock market historical return is ~10 [percent](http://www.marketwatch.com/story/8-lessons-from-80-years-of-market-history-2014-11-19). Obviously it fluctuates quite bit… Slee ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-obama-be-criticized-for-accepting-400-000-for-a-wall-street-speaking-engagement/785398/54 "2017-04-28T16:40:08Z")
He has retired from politics. There are no longer any ties so this is not an ethical conflict by any stretch of some sick perverted imagination. I do think back to the president he was. I also think about who the president now is. I only regret it isn’t $400 million (for a job well done in comparison). ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-obama-be-criticized-for-accepting-400-000-for-a-wall-street-speaking-engagement/785398/55 "2017-04-28T16:46:59Z")
I think it should be looked into by a special prosecutor… the next time he runs for office. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-obama-be-criticized-for-accepting-400-000-for-a-wall-street-speaking-engagement/785398/56 "2017-04-28T16:48:23Z")
> [@sleestak](#): > > Horsepucky. At least in Obamas case. > > So Obama, before taxes, walked away from the Presidency with 3.2 million before any book deals, etc. His housing/food/travel were paid for during that time. And that doesn’t include the salary he earns for the rest of his life from the government which is worth 205,700 a year. Plus free health care and Secret Service protection… Secret Service protection for the next 15 years. And the White House [wasn’t exactly a free ride](http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/10/politics/presidential-debt/). > [@](#): > > Former first lady Laura Bush wrote in her post-White House memoir that she was expected to pick up the tab for every meal she ate at the White House or the presidential Camp David retreat – for her husband’s two terms. > > “The presidential room, as it were, is covered, but not the board,” she wrote in her book, “Spoken from the Heart.” > > While first families aren’t responsible for utility bills or a mortgage, “it is more than fair that they pay for personal items like every American household.” > > So traumatized was Laura Bush by the constant attention to her predecessors hair that she hired a stylist to give her a blow dry daily – at her own expense. > > Bush wrote that a bill came monthly, itemizing everything she and her family owed, including food, dry cleaning and hourly wages for waiters and cleanup crews at private parties. Some on the 'net are upset that President Obama isn’t promising to Smash The Capitalist State. When did he ever do that? Ms Warren’s “concern” is noted. Why not use this time to summarize The Donald’s First 100 Days? Or to criticize her colleagues on the Hill? Nope, that’s not news… ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-obama-be-criticized-for-accepting-400-000-for-a-wall-street-speaking-engagement/785398/57 "2017-04-28T16:48:56Z")
Huge speaking fees are the way former high level politicians make money. I consider it kind of after-the-fact legal corruption, but that sort of thing is US politics. That President Obama decided to make some money this way is not a surprise nor a disappointment. It is simply the way things are done. Oh, and Sleestack seems to be forgetting these things called taxes. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-obama-be-criticized-for-accepting-400-000-for-a-wall-street-speaking-engagement/785398/58 "2017-04-28T16:54:04Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > Secret Service protection for the next 15 years. Ahem…[Former Presidents Act - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Former_Presidents_Act) > [@](#): > > On January 10, 2013, President Barack Obama signed the Former Presidents Protection Act of 2012, reinstating lifetime Secret Service protection for his predecessor George W. Bush, himself, and all subsequent presidents. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-obama-be-criticized-for-accepting-400-000-for-a-wall-street-speaking-engagement/785398/59 "2017-04-28T17:24:36Z")
> [@](#): > > Should Obama be criticized for accepting $400,000 for a Wall Street speaking engagement? Absolutely. Can’t believe this is even a question. He definitely should have held out for $1 million (space bucks)… ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-obama-be-criticized-for-accepting-400-000-for-a-wall-street-speaking-engagement/785398/60 "2017-04-28T17:41:53Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > _Maaaaaaaybe_ we should stop holding Obama to a higher standard than just about any politician in the past 50 years? Yes, this was made into a huge issue for Hillary and now for Obama- and there’s no reason for it at all. The GOP does it constantly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-obama-be-criticized-for-accepting-400-000-for-a-wall-street-speaking-engagement/785398.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-obama-be-criticized-for-accepting-400-000-for-a-wall-street-speaking-engagement/785398.md?page=4)