I guess Michelle Obama must be a riveting speaker …
… if she’s in fact making close to $750K for a one-hour speech, as reported in this article:
The 59-year-old former lawyer spoke to an estimated 5,000 attendees on how to “push past self-doubt while discussing the importance of inclusivity and diversity” at the annual Bits and Pretzels forum in Munich — a start-up event held on the sidelines of the annual Oktoberfest beer festival, according to the event website.
For her speech, Obama was paid 700,000 euros, which is roughly equivalent to $741,000, two unidentified sources close to the conference organizers told the Daily Mail.
Organizers told the outlet that the former first lady “topped the list” of people whom participants wanted to hear from “year after year.”
That comes out to be $12,350 per minute, and about $206 per second.
No doubt the speech was Churchillian.
These sorts of fees are one of the reasons politics is so corrupt these days – or one of the ways in which it’s so corrupt. And Michelle Obama isn’t even a politician – yet. Some say she will end up as the Democrats’ nominee in 2024. I have my doubts.
Best evidence there is that the real force behind the Biden admin is actually the Obamas acting via cutouts.
Otherwise, there’s no reason for such a blatant bribe, if they are not clearly exercising political power.
My kingdom for a vomit bag.
So Michelle Obama gets almost 3/4 of a million dollars to recite words that someone else wrote. Hillary Clinton must be green with envy — IIRC her fee was more in the $75-100K ballpark.
If Michelle should become the nominee, it would be fascinating to hear her explain her qualifications to be President.
Sadly, schedule conflicts would prevent my listening. My guess is that it would come down to, “I’m a ‘Twofer’, and that trumps (no pun) experience and proven competence.”.
In the event, perhaps Neo would do us a favor, listen and publish an analysis.
Seriously, it is saddening and somewhat frightening that presumably serious people are floating the idea of her running. It is even more saddening, and frightening, to realize that given the state of American politics she could win—just because.
Fortunately for us all, it’s pretty unlikely she’ll run. She’s happy to fleece money from progressive plutocrats, but she wouldn’t like to do any actual work at this stage in her life. She already has plenty of wealth and acclaim. She leads a very comfortable, low stress life doing whatever she wants surrounded by people who fall over themselves to please her. Why would she give that up?
1. Principal / agent problem
2. Money laundering.
==
You can debar this sort of thing via federal law, but nothing will happen.
Funny, how it’s always the leftwing former first lady that gets this lavish speaking fees.
She’s making 750k per hour. WHY would she want to be president!?
It works out to $150 per attendee, if they each ponied up. People drop that much on sports tickets.
Since it’s an Oktoberfest sideshow in Germany, it’s hard to see who is buying Obama influence from her. But one of the problems with America being so deeply involved in so many parts of the world is that it is probably worth SOMEONE’S while in Germany to try to purchase whatever her influence is.
Would be nice to get a complete list of American politicians with similar arrangements overseas, but we never will.
Next question is who has decided to share this now, and why? The NY Post got it from the Daily Mail, the Daily Mail got it from anonymous sources organizing the conference.
Its a club, and none of us are in it. and yes, she will probably be candidate for 2024, either as vp or president.
And most of the republicans in Congress will be fine with it. It’s not about who ‘wins’, its about continuing the grift.
Either burn it down to the ground, or pretend that all this is normal.
Given all the unpleasentness around running a modern presidential campaign as well as the demands of the job itself, I think it takes a certain sort of (slightly derranged) mindset to truly want to run for president. First there has to be a low level ambition, a hole that needs to be filled. It’s generally a life long ambition too. It’s not something you just decide on a whim. I suspect that even Donald Trump, perhaps the most atypical president since Andrew Jackson, had real presidential aspirations from a young age. And I think you have to have a very high level of unwavering determination as well as a delusional level of self confidence, perhaps bording on megalomania. Perhaps this is why we can’t have a normal, boring president anymore.
If she had a few hours to kill & made it over to Oktoberfest, she could have made a BIG SPLASH on…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5UYUFWMHXw
Re Nonapod’s musings about possible early presidential ambitions by Trump, I recommend watching at least the first ~five minutes here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=305-erOr3jk&t=1s
It strikes me as odd that several eminences were asking a then-34-year-old about the possibility, but their doing so might have actually sparked such ambitions.
Stop complaining about the speaking fee !! Do you know what the taxes are on their homes ???! She has great qualifications for president. !! She started a white house garden , so she knows farming!! She is a nutritionist with her school lunch program but forced her kids to eat chef inspired food at sidwell friends school . She headed a program at a Chicago hospital that funneled poor black patients to other inner city hospitals. So she knows health care!! She tours inner city schools on a weekly basis without pay to inspire young children. And she serves as a tutor for children with reading problems. WHAT a leader! Our next president!!
And if her expenses were less that $50K I’d be shocked. Private round-trip plane from U.S. to Germany. 5* hotel. 5* meals ( if there are any of those restaurants in Germany), chauffeured limo, nightly entertainment, 24-hour security and incidentals.
So the question is whether she can make more money as a speaker or as a politician.
Is she proud of her country now?
Either a payoff for the Leftist Elite or if we see soon she is running its a pre bribe just like Sundowner got from the Chinese
I remember when Hillary Clinton was running for president, Bill got to give a speech in Russia for $500 thousand or so. NPR ‘journalists’ get in on this too.
It works out to $150 per attendee, if they each ponied up. People drop that much on sports tickets.
==
You mean all their revenue goes to the speaker’s fee. Sounds plausible.
om:
For the second time!
“It’s not about who ‘wins’, its about continuing the grift. Either burn it down to the ground, or pretend that all this is normal.” Jim
It’s the continued pretense that all of this is normal that will ensure that it all burns down to the ground. The West is courting the Roman Empire’s fate.
Michelle should pay me to hear my lecture on the origin of the U.S. Railroads
General Code of Operating Rules.
Why? Cause I could use the money……..
She’s not all that well liked in the black community. Like white conservative information sites, liberals don’t track black conservative sites. I have half a dozen I cruise thru daily because I want to keep an overall view and they’re simply entertaining people. I’ll list some:
Charles N Charge
Black Conservative Perspective
Doc Rich
The Poor Mans Podcast Reacts
Amala Ekpunobi
A few of many.
Don’t let the media amplification fool you.
It’s a three day opportunity for people with start-ups to network. Representatives of financial institutions will probably be there with their expenses paid by their companies. Banks and venture capitalists and hedgefunds may be paying for the event. Big speaker fees are a big part of political corruption, but in this case, I don’t think any attendee is expecting great favors from this. Maybe this wins Germany friendship if Michelle does run, but more than that, she is apparently a big draw over there. DEI is already becoming a big thing in the Germany corporate world, and this is an indication of that.