John Edwards Charges $55,000 for Speech on Poverty???!!!!
@whiteheather39 (24403)
United States
May 22, 2007 2:16pm CST
This blows my mind, what a way to show what a great presidential candidate he is??? Any comments?
John Edwards has an example to teach University of California at Davis students how to avoid poverty — charge $55,000 for a speech.
That's how much the 2008 Democratic presidential candidate negotiated for his fee to speak to 1,787 people at the taxpayer-funded school in January 2006, according to financial disclosures.
According to Joe Martin, the public relations officer for UC Davis' Mondavi Center, the fee for a speech entitled, "Poverty, the Great Moral issue Facing America," was worth it to school officials.
Martin told The San Francisco Chronicle that the center paid Edwards because at the time "he wasn't a (presidential) candidate and from our point of view, he was a speaker of interest that people in the community were clearly interested in ... we feel it's our mission to present those speakers."
The speaking fee, which amounts to about $31 per audience member, was the highest Edwards earned in nine appearances last year at colleges and universities. In all, he earned $285,000 for the nine speeches.
Full story
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,274513,00.html
7 people like this
15 responses
@classy56 (2880)
• United States
22 May 07
i knew that guy was going to be a rip off.he just has a sneaky look.he is like the rest of them.they all want more money an he could care less about poverty an helping the poor or try to improve the world.this is just ridiculis of him.
@whiteheather39 (24403)
• United States
23 May 07
I don't like his track record so far, using his wife's illness for "pity"? votes, $800.00 on two haircuts, now this... !
2 people like this
@herrbaggs (1308)
• United States
22 May 07
Well now I understand the 400 dollar hair cuts and I bet he writes them off as a business expence. I bet every barber and hair dresser votes for him.
4 people like this
@hockeygal4ever (10021)
• United States
23 May 07
OMG.... talk about an oxymoron! Then again, he paid hundreds for a really bad haircut too! LOL
3 people like this
@speakeasy (4171)
• United States
22 May 07
I am definately in the wrong business.
I would be more than willing to do the research and give the speach to twice as many people and for half the price.
Where do I sign up?
3 people like this
@jennybianca (12912)
• Australia
23 May 07
I would imagine the lessons students learned from this speech, was not to attend any more of John Edwards speeches! What hypocracy to speak on avoiding poverty!
@whiteheather39 (24403)
• United States
1 Jun 07
That was what really irked me was the hypocrisy of it.
@GardenGerty (160949)
• United States
22 May 07
Politicians will charge what the market will bear. I have often seen organizations pay outrageous fees for things that are intangible, and not very credible. Schools and colleges think grant money grows on trees or falls out of the air, and they use it for things like this.I want to know what Edwards really knows about poverty. Has he ever been contacted by bill collectors, had something repossessed, done without a meal, slept on a street, had his utilities turned off? If not, he does not know about poverty, except in a theoretical sense. Poverty is something every politician should have first hand experience of.
3 people like this
@visitorinvasion (7709)
• United States
23 May 07
I don't even take Edwards seriously as a candidate.
He seems phony when in interview, and most of the scuttlebutt is that he is perfect for the job of figurehead. The fact that he's banking fat loot from his recognition as a potential nominee doesn't surprise me in the least.
2 people like this
@whiteheather39 (24403)
• United States
1 Jun 07
I have never before had really bad gut feeling of dislike and distrust for ny politican as I do for Edwards.
@Eskimo (2315)
•
22 May 07
If he is the decent honourable person he wants us all to believe, then he will of course donate all of his fee to a poverty charity, no one is worth that amount of money just to make a speech, (even $5,000 is too much).
I am fed up with people making money out of other people's suffering.
3 people like this
@crazynurse (7482)
• United States
23 May 07
Something about this man just makes my skin crawl. What the flip does he know about poverty? I wonder if he donated any of hat 55K to an organization to help the impoverished? Seems he really enjoys the rich life. Four hundred dollar haircuts, 55 K speaches.....makes one wonder what state he could get our country into if elected.
1 person likes this
@gardengrrl (1445)
• United States
1 Jun 07
Hi, heather!
The juxtaposition of the subject of the speech and the fee for giving it is ironic, but Edwards is far from the only politician who commands substantial fees for speaking engagements. Pretty much everybody who can draw a paying audience does, when they can. Both parties share equally in this one!
I don't really have a frame of reference to assess the value of services rendered, but that's what the free market is for, right? =o) =o) =o)
I'm actually sick and tired of political campaigns that start the minute the previous one ends. Send these turkeys back to Washington so they can spend some time doing what we elected them to do!
1 person likes this
@whiteheather39 (24403)
• United States
1 Jun 07
So right. I was pretty shocked to find that Bush raised half a billion US dollars from private donations and 74.6 million from government funding for his 2004 presidential campaign.
@sumofalltears (3988)
• United States
23 May 07
Just continues the chain of irony. Do you think the American public will ever wake up and smell the roses? People need to realize that there is something wrong with the politicians all being fat cats while we the voters struggle for our day to day existence. I have never trusted politics or politicians, about the best I can hope for is that the lesser of the two eveils wins the election.
@irmzcraze06 (37)
• Philippines
23 May 07
poverty...poverty... i know he wouldn't be poor with that kind of pay for a single speech... his pay doesn't even give justice to what he is going to discuss... POVERTY!!!! he is just a show off...
2 people like this
@0Impact0 (69)
• United States
23 May 07
Funny that this is from FoxNews... I would expect that. The sad fact is that a presidential candidacy is a huge investment and money is hard to come-by for senators that do their job like Obama and Edwards and don't have daddy's oil money to use.
1 person likes this
@visitorinvasion (7709)
• United States
23 May 07
Did you know that the candidates that don't get nominated to run get to keep campaign donations?
...and I don't see any daddy-money in Ron Paul's pocket either, btw.
2 people like this
