I would really be interested in learning just how many of the people bitching about a former First Lady and Secretary of State’s speaking fees after she left those positions would turn down offers from industry groups to do the same. I include Senator Sanders and a bucketload of journalists.

Reagan collected $2M for two speeches to a Japanese communications conglomerate. GWB has made at least $15M speaking to private groups just through 2011 (Daily Beast, May 2011). Sure, Bill Clinton made a bunch of money making speeches after he left office, but so have most Presidents since Jerry Ford. Donald Trump, HRC’s probable opponent in the fall, was paid $1.5M for speeches to the Learning Annex’s real estate expos in 2006 and 2007.

Why pay such large sums of money to hear someone speak? Company meetings, industry conventions and educational seminars can be ho-hum affairs. Few things can inject a jolt of excitement–or draw a paying crowd–quite like a famous speaker or someone with a compelling story to tell.

[snip]

“Someone who’s truly brilliant” as a speaker will always do well with an audience, Berg [SVP and head of the lecture department at the William Morris Agency in New York] says. But, she adds, “by and large, it’s really about being in the room with someone that they really want to be with.”

Well, that lets out most of the journalists. I can’t think of a one I’d like to be in the same room with at this point of the campaign.