The first phase of Hillary Clinton’s (possibly brief) life as a private citizen — quiet relaxation — lasted all of about twenty minutes. Onto phase two: leveraging her stratospheric popularity for ungodly sums of money.
Politico reports this morning that Clinton “will hit the paid speaking circuit this spring (likely April or May),” and “industry officials,” not surprisingly, “expect that she will be one of the highest paid speakers in the history of the circuit, with fees well into the six figures in the United States and abroad.”
The Clinton family is not unfamiliar with high-paying speeches. In the ten years after he left the White House, Bill Clinton (who is also represented by the Harry Walker Agency) made $75 million in speaking fees. And he didn’t even need to hit the podium once a week to reach that impressive sum. Over the course of the decade, Clinton “delivered a total of 417 paid speeches and earned an average of $181,000 per event. Almost two-thirds of his total speech earnings, about $44.9 million, have come from 215 overseas events in 48 countries,” according to CNN.
According to Politico, Hillary Clinton is also “beginning to make decisions about the book she has said she will write, an account of her four years as secretary of State,” and for that she can expect another big payday. In 2000, her $8 million book advance for Living History nearly set an all-time record (Pope John Paul II just had her beat with $8.5 million), and that was before she became a senator, ran for president, served as secretary of State, and transformed herself into the country’s most well-liked politician.
Part of the reason that Clinton isn’t taking too much time to lie on the beach is that, if she really is going to run for president again, she only has about two and half years, tops, before life on the campaign trail begins. After that, if things go as planned, she’ll have four to eight years on a president’s measly $400,000 salary. She’s gotta get while the gettin’s good.
