Want to apply the Coup de Grace to the Clintons and end this fiasco? Why not offer a "No Paid Ex-President Speeches Pledge?" That should be something Obama would cheerily accept and it would serve to bring to the forefront a discussion that is too easily ignored: Why do ex-Presidents get compensated so lucratively for speeches? Isn't this an issue that everyone, including the MSM, is totally ignoring? Let's think about this for a minute.
Ok, Bill Clinton is a dynamic and brilliant speaker, I'll grant that. But is Goldman, Sachs for example really getting $ 500,000 worth for a speech by him and on more than one ocassion? Isn't this a payment for past access and possible favors (and with Hillary in the Senate and the Clintons possibly back in the White House) done in the past? Won't the proof of the real reason for speaking fees be given when Cheney and even Dubya are racking-up big speaking fees when they are out of office, and you know they will!
It's just like the large advances for books, some of which don't even sell. Not an ex-Prez, but $ 4 million for George Tenet's biography, wanna bet the publishers took a bath on that one? Could a publishing company be a conduit for disguised payoffs after one leaves office? Perhaps a big contributor buys up a ton of books, who knows? We have laws that restrict the activities of former government employees at a lower level, but ex-Presidents are free to do what they like regardless the appearance of impropriety. And when the government of Dubai pays a couple million for a few speeches, shouldn't that raise eyebrows?
If Obama offered that pledge perhaps the MSM would be forced to really focus on what's going on here and it would put HRC on a spot she deserves to be on. As for McCain, he might also accept that pledge because by the time he's an ex-Prez, and judging by how he mangles speeches already, it's doubtful he could even give a speech.