March 15, 2009
Millionaires-In-Chief
Ex-Presidents Have Discovered There's Gold To Be Had In Retirement
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President George W. Bush leaves behind Washington, and while the nation's future may be uncertain, he knows he may look ahead to lucrative speaking engagements, corporate boards and maybe a book deal. (White House/Eric Draper)
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Play CBS Video Video Executive Privilege Becoming President of the United States has always guaranteed a place in history. But increasingly, becoming President guarantees something else? millions of dollars. Jim Axelrod reports.
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Back in Texas on his first day as an ex-president, George W. Bush made his plans perfectly clear:
“We may be retired, but we’re not tired out. I’m going to write a book, and I may give some speeches."
Our 43rd president intends to follow the game plan of our 42nd president … and who can blame him?
Since leaving office in 2001, Bill Clinton has earned more than $100 million, in book royalties and speaking fees.
And he’s not alone.
Being an ex-president these days means being part of a very exclusive, very lucrative club. But it wasn't always that way.
"It's somewhat unfathomable, quite frankly," said author Leonard Benardo. "We look at Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, later Jackson, Grant, all ending their lives in relative poverty or debt. And it boggles the imagination."
Benardo and Jennifer Weiss have written a book about the lives of ex-presidents, "Citizen-In-Chef" (HarperCollins). The idea of profiting from the presidency, they say, would have shocked our founding fathers.
"Early on it would seem to be what the founders called 'un-republican," or un-virtuous, to make money following one's presidency, to engage in commercial pursuits," he said. "And very few did."
George Washington struggled to make ends meet … and he was one of the more prosperous early ex-presidents.
"He was cash poor," Benardo said. "He had a 2,200-square-foot distillery, became one of the largest whiskey distillers, in fact, in Virginia."
George Washington, the Father of Country, was making whiskey?
"That's correct," said Benardo.
Many of our early presidents - Jefferson, Madison, Monroe - had money issues after leaving office.
"They all did, actually," Jennifer Weiss said. "And in fact, when we think of Jefferson's final act, the University of Virginia, many people don't realize that was all done with borrowed funds. And his lifestyle really caused him to leave the White House and lead a life of destitution."
Fast forward to the 20th century.
When Harry Truman’s term was up, he paid for his own train ticket back to Independence, Missouri, where he moved into his mother-in-law's house … and mowed the lawn himself.
Although there was nothing set up for a Chief Executive once he departed the Oval Office, Truman refused to go on corporate boards. "He felt that that was somehow wrong for a former president," Benardo said. "He had this idea of the kind of nobility and dignity of the office of the presidency."
How quaint. Due in part to Truman’s circumstances, in 1958 Congress voted to provide a pension for former presidents, as well as money for offices and staff.
A few ex-presidents later, Gerald Ford demonstrated the folly of thinking that financial safety net would curb a former Leader of the Free World's ambition to cash in.
"He basically sold himself to the highest bidder," said Weiss.
Ford sat on every corporate board that would have him - as many as 7 at the same time.
In 1989 Ronald Reagan received $2 million to give a couple of speeches in Japan.
George H.W. Bush made millions working for the Carlyle Group, a high-powered Washington, D.C. consulting firm.
But Bill Clinton has raised the game to a whole new level.
"An ex-president is gold, celebrity gold," said Richard Laermer, who runs his own marketing firm. In the modern age, he says, presidents are like rocks stars, and rock stars make money.
"The days when you expected the president to just go sit on the front stoop and rock in his chair, those days are gone," Laermer said.
And they're never coming back, because as Laermer explains, "There’s too much money to be made."
The key to preserving presidential dignity, Laermer says, is to get rich almost as an after-thought, while pursuing your true mission - whether it’s building homes for the poor, distributing aid to tsunami victims, or fighting AIDS.
"It’s the image that he puts forth as he says what he says and does what he does," Laermer said, "and as long as it stays close to the way people perceive him, he can make as much money as he wants to make."
Unless, says author Jennifer Weiss, the money gets so big it becomes the mission.
"In the society they live in, they have the right to make money, certainly," she said. "We've seen that now ex-presidents have spent a lot of time doing good on an international scale. Will their exploitation of the presidency, in any way, diminish that possibility? Will they just be seen as mercenary business people? It’s a good question …"
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- With a need for a change in the attitude of entitlement in our Government right now, it would seem right that any government official, past or present, (including president) that made over one million a year, should forfeit their governmental pension including health care for that year. With former elected officials sitting on boards, lobbying, writing books, a position in government has become a highway to riches. Why should we have to supplement them any more. Maybe the money saved could go into the shaky social security funding system.
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- Obama's charitable giving - I looked it up. He gave less than 1% and about 1% through 2004, and then, once in DC making about 1 million in AGI, with eyes on the White House I might add, he upped it to 4.67% in 2005 and 6.13% in 2006! What a heart!! He loves the poor! I wonder how much he gave to Rev. Wright and his church? Oh, I found it.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=apR1J1py2Ouc&refer=home
They gave their church $5000 in 2005 and $22,000 in 2006. that is a pretty big portion of his meager charitable giving, especially when one considers he supposedly had no idea what his pastor was even preaching... - Reply to this comment
- All I can say is I hope Barack Obama makes a lot of money in four years as an ex-president! And then I hope Obama gives at least 60% of it to his beloved, bloated federal government, whether or not he has raised the level that high! Someone needs to pay the Chinese back.... and the richer you are, the more you should pay, right? Perhaps even he will start actually giving more to charity to avoid giving it to the feds. As of yet, Obama's charitable giving as a pretty rich man has been incredibly minimal (what was it? 1% on his 2007 Return?). I know he gave practically nothing in comparison to many evil, hateful, wicked, heartless, cruel republican lawmakers. Hey, maybe he can team up with Jimmy Carter and build homes. That would seem appropriate since the laws his party made forced banks to grant high mortgages to people who could never make the payments!
- Reply to this comment
- Millionaires-In-Chief
Terrorist-In-Chief
Samo Samo - Reply to this comment
- Once, there was a Wicked GOP
In the lovely land of Oz
And a wickeder, wickeder, wickeder,
Wickeder GOP, there never was
She filled the folks in Valueland
With terror and with dread
'Til one fine day from DC way,
A cyclone caught the house of cards that brought
The Wicked, Wicked GOP her doom
As she was flying on her gloom
For the house of cards fell on her head
And the coroner pronounced her dead
And through the town, the joyous news was spread
Ding dong! The GOP is dead
GOP old GOP, the Wicked GOP!
Ding dong! The Wicked GOP is dead
Wake up, you sleepy-head
Rub your eyes, get out of bed
Wake up, the Wicked GOP is dead
She's gone where the goblins go, below
Below, below, yo-ho
Let's open up and sing
And ring the bells out
Ding dong! The merry-oh
Sing it high, sing it low
Let them know the Wicked GOP is dead! - Reply to this comment
- Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.
The Voters proclaim:
Ding-Dong - The GOP is Dead
Ding-dong, the GOP is dead
GOP O GOP
The wicked GOP
Ding-dong, the wicked GOP is dead
In a dress parade, the tiny people's army marches behind Obama.
Taking him to the Presidents dwelling in Washington DC (in the country of the Land called America) where he is welcomed.
Americans insist that the GOP is proven to be dead - in all ways:
...morally, ethically, spiritually, physically, positively, absolutely, undeniably, and reliably- dead
The public media officially pronounces the GOP dead with the presentation of a Certificate of Death.
The GOP is not only merely dead, The GOP is really most sincerely dead - Reply to this comment
- iIbush plese live a quiet life in TX. I think the founding Fathers would be apalled if they were alive seeing what the ex presidents do once he leaves office. Mr Center is cool, They had their time. An former president should live a quiet life. He can't work. Truman he set a good ex for former presidents. I am 54, It cost money to live. Getting rich cos yer a former preident is not the thing to do. They should not cash in .just cos they were once President.
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- SCUM.................that stuff that grows in dirty, filthy stagnant water.................I think they call that Bush 2, Clinton, Bush 1, and so on, and so on. Washington and Jefferson are turning in their graves.........and Truman......my god.......he would put these guys in front of a firing squad.
- Reply to this comment
Mike Huckabee on GOP "rock stars," 2012, health care reform and more.
