So much for the quiet life… George W Bush rakes in staggering $15million on speaking circuit
By David Gardner
Daily Mail Last updated at 12:02 AM on 21st May 2011
Former president George Bush has raked in a whopping $15 million since leaving the White House, it was claimed today.
Despite insisting he wanted to keep a low profile, Mr Bush has padded his bank account by making scores of speeches paying between $100,000 and $150,000 a time.
The ex-president has made a point of saying he was staying away from politics after retiring to Dallas, Texas.
He turned down an invitation from Barack Obama to attend a ceremony at Ground Zero after Osama bin Laden was killed because he wanted to remain out of the spotlight.
But, according to iWatchNews, Mr Bush made time for three speeches in the week after the 9/11 event.
He earned three six-figure paydays speaking to hedge fund executives in Las Vegas, the UBS Swiss bank in New York and a professional golf gathering in Florida.
In all, Mr Bush is estimated to have delivered as many as 140 paid talks at home and abroad.
Almost all of the speeches are closed to the press so they do not get widespread coverage.
Analysts claim the $15 million estimate is conservative. But while that figure is still dwarfed by the multi-millions Bill Clinton has coined in since his presidency, it still doesn’t sit well with some critics.
‘I find it puzzling. He says he wants to keep a low profile. What is he doing except enriching himself?’ Stanford University historian Robert Dallek told iWatch News.
‘It sounds like it’s self-serving. It’s following the good old American adage to make as much as you can,’ he added.
Other historians said they were uncomfortable with the way Mr Bush and past presidents have profited so handsomely after leaving office.
‘It’s one thing to stay out of the public realm, which George Bush has said he wants to do,’ said Julian Zelizer, a presidential historian at Princeton University.
‘But then he goes on the speaking circuit and makes enormous amounts of money giving lectures mostly to corporate groups and other select audiences. Some Americans can find this distasteful.’
Mr Zelizer told the website: ‘We’re in an era where there are countless fears about money and politics. I think former presidents have to be careful about what they’re doing with their speeches. For some people it’s another version of the revolving door between Capitol Hill and K Street.’
Mr Bush’s father also went on the US lecture circuit and Ronald Reagan was panned for accepting a staggering $2 million for giving two speeches in Japan.
Financial disclosures revealed that Mr Clinton earned $65 million in speaking fees between 2001 and 2009.
‘I never had any money until I got out of the White House, you know, but I’ve done reasonably well since then,’ he said during a visit to South Africa last year. Mr Bush’s lectures have taken him around the world to the Far East and Canada as well as domestic audiences.
But the former president, who was already a millionaire when he took office, has made a lot of money from his book, ‘Decision Points’, which has sold more than three million copies.
He has also helped raise $300 million for the George W. Bush Foundation that supports his presidential library at the Southern Methodist University in Texas.
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