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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bilow who wrote (44087)	9/15/2002 12:16:41 PM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 281500

Do you have a single example of a recent US president who was elected without wealth and didn't become filthy rich while in office? I can't think of a single example of a President who became richer while in office, much less "filthy rich". It's against the law, and would surely not escape the attention of his enemies. They get paid $200K a year, not much overhead, but that's upper middle class, not "rich." Richer once leaving office is no problem. They get a nice pension, and are sought out as speakers and sell books. Typically, though, it's not the President who is able to capitalize on the office and get rich, it's his cabinet members who get cushy jobs with law firms and corporations that deal with the government. The President is supposed to not capitalize on his office. Even the thought that Clinton might do a talk show was a scandal. In response to your question, working backward, Presidents who were not rich when they became President include Clinton (never even owned his own home before becoming President, his wife bought their present home after selling a book), Carter (peanut farmer), Nixon (his wife wore a "Republican cloth coat"), Eisenhower (career military), Truman (haberdasher), Hoover (engineer). Further back my memory is spotty but Lincoln was just a trial lawyer. Jefferson had nice digs but was technically bankrupt all his life. Andrew Jackson, our first non-patrician president, started out as a poor orphan but was well-off when he became president. A self-made man. Americans don't really like the idea of the rich becoming President, in my opinion. I don't know any President with more class hatred directed towards him than Bush I. Roosevelt was liked but the rich considered him a traitor to his class, which of course he was.