Pathetic:

“Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, who as a Democratic presidential candidate recently proposed an educational policy that urged “every financial barrier” be removed for American kids who want to go to college, has been going to college himself — as a high paid speaker, his financial records show.

The candidate charged a whopping $55,000 to speak at to a crowd of 1,787 the taxpayer-funded University of California at Davis on Jan. 9, 2006 last year, Joe Martin, the public relations officer for the campus’ Mondavi Center confirmed Monday.

That amount — which comes to about $31 a person in the audience — included Edwards’ travel and airfare, and was the highest speaking fee in the nine appearances he made before colleges and universities last year, according to his financial records.”

The earnings — though made before Edwards was a declared Democratic presidential candidate — could hand ammunition to his competition for the Democratic presidential nomination. The candidate — who was then the head of the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina — chose to speak on “Poverty, the great moral issue facing America,” as his $55,000 topic at UC Davis.”

As a public speaker I don’t fraction of what John Edwards gets, but I’ll bet if I could I’m not as stupid as to think no one would find out, epecially if I’m trying to be the President.

One would be shocked if not for the fact that Edwards is typical of the democratic elite. Always yacking about the poor and the little man from lofty towers stacked high with cash.

Not that Democrats are the only weathy politicians, but they outnumber the Republicans by a big margin. Of course the left will spin this as “Edwards is not the issue, it’s the message - the message of poverty!!”

Meanwhile a commenter at Don Surber’s blog provides additional insight:

“Comment from Hoss: ‚ÄúJohn‚Äôs just out there perpetuating his ‚ÄòTwo Americas‚Äô theme ‚Ķ. the one where he flies around leaving a massive carbon footprint raking in huge speaking fees (when on sabbatical from his hedge-fund ‚Äòpoverty‚Äô research) against the one where the rest of the suckers go to work to pay for the tuition increases commensurate with speakers bureau fees and other educational imperatives.‚Äù