The Associated Press recently reported that “Bill Clinton has a limited liability corporation — called WJC, LLC — that serves as a ‘pass through’ entity designed to ‘channel payments to the former president.’” As the Washington Post puts it, “If you have no idea what the heck the sentence above means, you are not alone. And therein lies the problem for Hillary Clinton as she seeks to sell herself as the voice of everyday Americans in her bid for the White House in 2016.” WaPo,
President Obama’s campaign used the exoticness of Romney’s wealth — and how/where it was stored and maintained — to paint a picture of the Republican nominee as an out-of-touch plutocrat. (Romney helped make the case against him with the 47 percent comments.)
Hillary Clinton’s defenders will reject the comparison, insisting that Romney made his money through business practices that often preyed on the average person and backed policies that looked out for the wealthiest Americans first and foremost. Clinton, they argue, has made a career of consistently fighting for average Americans and her wealth is derived from paid speeches — not from, in the words of Rick Perry in the 2012 GOP primary, “vulture capitalism.”
But, whether or not she is Romney 2.0, the reality is that the amount of money coming into the Clinton coffers ($25 million from speaking fees alone since the start of 2014) coupled with this WJC, LLC — not to mention the regularly revised donor policies of the Clinton Foundation — badly complicates her pitch that she is able to understand regular folks.
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