More proof that it Al Gore is our only hope ... Run, Al, Run

The faux Big Story from Marinucci's blog post goes that Edwards received a "whopping" $55,000 fee for speaking at Mondavis Center last January (2006, before he declared for president). Her opinion seems to be that because he is already wealthy, he should have done the speech gratis. She itemized all his college and university engagements in 2006 and noted that this one netted him the highest fee.

This little hit job and all it insinuated was sufficient to get her invited onto FOX's biggest tabloid news show, where she coyly feigned concern for Edwards getting a reputation as a hypocrite. because he is a wealthy American and continues to generate income yet speaks out on the issue of poverty in America.

Comment: The whole premise is ridiculous, stupid, even. They are pushing the idea that because Edwards is wealthy, he should not charge for his services. He doesn't have to, but it is his right to and to question him alone for continuing to accumulate wealth while ignoring the Bushes and the Cheneys and the Giulianis and the Romneys etc. etc. etc.) is pure partisanship. They are trying to push the meme that because the subject of his concern is poverty in America, it is hypocritical of him to take money for his work at educating and motivating audiences.

If Edwards was going around advocating in favor of poverty, saying we should all strive for it and live simple, non-material lives as he lived the good life, THEN he would be a hypocrite. But what he does is advocate success and tries to show people how to achieve it, as he did. The real hypocrites are at FOX.

Several media figures have attacked Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards for receiving a $55,000 fee for a January 2006 speech at the University of California-Davis -- as first reported in a May 21 entry to the San Francisco Chronicle's Politics Blog. In several cases, they have not also mentioned reports that Republican presidential contender Rudy Giuliani charged Oklahoma State University $100,000 for a speech he delivered in 2006 and an additional $47,000 for the use of a private jet, as Media Matters for America has noted. Moreover, several left out the response by the Edwards campaign, which asserted that UC-Davis offset the cost through sponsorship and ticket sales to the event.

As Media Matters noted, on the May 22 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, CNN senior political correspondent Candy Crowley reported that the Edwards campaign claimed "it was a paid speech, but there were tickets for it -- somewhere between $17.50 for students; about $40 for adults. So it paid for itself." According to UC-Davis' Robert & Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, tickets for the speech ranged from $17.50 to $45. The entry on the Chronicle's Politics Blog noted that he spoke to "a crowd of 1,787," meaning that if everyone paid admission, ticket sales would have brought in somewhere between $31,272 and $80,415.

Additionally, to put this all in context, recently UCD tried to get Al Gore to come to the Mondavi Center. They were given a ballpark number of around $115,000 and used that as a fundraising goal. When they did in fact get that amount in potential funding, from the UCD Administration, outside donors, the mondavi center, and estimated tickets, the price was raised to upwards of $170,000, because the Academy Awards were around the corner and a potential Nobel Peace Prize.