Obama joins the gravy train with US$400,000 speech
UNITED STATES: He has holidayed with billionaires and stayed at Marlon Brando’s old retreat in the South Pacific to work on his memoir.
As Barack Obama nears 100 days out of office, he is facing his first controversy as a former president. Obama is said to have agreed to accept US$400,000 (NZ$579,000) from a Wall Street group to give a speech later this year.
Cantor Fitzgerald has signed him up to give a luncheon address during its annual healthcare conference in September.
Obama was said to have signed a contract which enabled him to back out of the arrangement if it clashed with other commitments or if news of the engagement caused a backlash.
Neither his office, nor Cantor Fitzgerald, responded to requests for comment.
The reported payment, nearly double the notorious Goldman Sachs speaking fee that caused difficulties for Hillary Clinton during her failed presidential campaign, has prompted some dismay among Obama’s supporters.
Former presidents are frequently judged against Harry Truman, who 1. Bill Clinton: In 2011 the telecoms company Ericsson paid the former US president US$750,000 for an address in Hong Kong. 2. Tony Blair: Possibly best-paid speaker per minute. In 2009 he made almost US$616,000 for two half-hour speeches in the Philippines. 3. Rudy Giuliani: The former New York mayor was paid US$270,000 by Sage Capital Group Inc in 2005. 4. Alan Greenspan: In 2006 the former Federal Reserve chairman was paid US$250,000 for a speech by the now defunct Lehman Brothers. left office in 1953 with just an army pension of US$112.56 a month.
He sold the rights to his memoir to Life magazine but turned down lucrative roles, saying: ‘‘I could never lend myself to any transaction however respectable that would commercialise on the prestige and dignity of the office of the presidency.’’
In 1958 the Former Presidents Act sought to make these scruples easier to uphold by approving a generous pension, now worth more than US$200,000 a year.
Nevertheless, in the last quarter of the 20th century, former presidents felt able to entertain other offers. Gerald Ford took directorships; Ronald Reagan reportedly made US$2 million for two 20-minute speeches in Japan shortly after leaving the White House and George Bush Sr and Jimmy Carter became fixtures on the paid lecture circuit. Bill Clinton, who left the White House owing millions of dollars in legal fees, made US$40m this way in his first six years out of office.
Obama and his wife, Michelle, left office relatively young, with high approval ratings, and have chosen to remain in Washington while their younger daughter finishes school.
They signed a book contract, for multiple titles, said to be worth US$65m, and took holidays. They were guests of Sir Richard Branson on Necker, his Caribbean island, and were seen aboard the yacht of the music and film tycoon David Geffen, off Tahiti, with Tom Hanks, Bruce Springsteen and Oprah Winfrey.
Obama was said to have made a start on his memoir on the South Pacific island of Tetiaroa, at The Brando, named after the atoll’s former landlord.
In his first public speaking engagement, at the University of Chicago, Obama said this week that he hoped to ‘‘in any way I can prepare the next generation of leadership to take up the baton’’.
Matthew Yglesias, a liberal writer, argued that he might start by declining speaking fees. – The Times