Will President Obama retire from office a wealthy man?

Will President Obama retire from office a wealthy man?

By Roger Caldwell

Politics is a business, and many legislators start out struggling, and their career can go either way. In order to be successful you must be a conduit and make deals, and articulate a vision. The vision can be built around a tangible problem, or a series of promises that will take months or years to come to fruition.

President Obama was the poorest president since Truman, and most of his wealth was earned from his two books, The Audacity of Hope and Dreams from My Father. The President married Michelle in 1992, after they had met at the Stanley Austin Law Firm in Chicago, where they both were employed.

The Obamas were not born with a golden spoon so they both worked very hard to pay their bills, and become successful. The President always had more than one job, and he was a professor at the University of Chicago for 12 years. Michelle also worked as a staff member in the Mayor’s office as Executive Director for the Office of Public Affairs.

In the early 2000’s, the family was making around $200,000 with both salaries, and to some Americans that would be considered an upper-middle class income. But when you compare this income to most federal Congress legislators and Senators, this would be considered a low income.

When President Obama gave his famous speech in 2004, at the Democratic Convention that catapulted his name on a national level, very few Americans were following his political career. As a result of this speech, President Obama won his campaign as a senator, and his income began to explode. In 2005, his income grew from $200,000 per year to $1.7 million between him and his wife.

The family income quadrupled once the President entered the national stage, and the President was also able to market his vision with the use of technology. Now Americans were following the President’s career, and in 2007 the book Audacity of Hope was released. This book became a best seller, and that year the President and his wife made $4.2 million.

The Obama family has made over $19 million since the early 2000’s, and it is now estimated that the family’s net worth is over $11 million. Much of this information is derived from analyzing the family financial disclosure forms, but the Obama family is now wealthy. President Obama is truly a rags to riches story, where an individual started with a dream, and followed it until it became reality.

President Obama has proven that anyone has the capacity to achieve their dreams if they only believe. Even with racism, sexism and any other barrier you can think of, capitalism and democracy are two systems that gives everyone an opportunity or chance to be great. Now entrepreneurs in their 20’s are billionaires, therefore the opportunity is open to everyone.

In the book, The Audacity of Hope, President Obama shared his dreams with America, and millions bought the vision, and that is why he is wealthy, and President today.  “A tradition of politics that stretched from the days of the country’s founding to the glory of the civil rights movement, a tradition based on the simple idea that we have a stake in one another, and that what binds us together is greater than what drives us apart, and if enough people believe in the truth of that proposition, and act on it, then we might not solve every problem; but we can get something meaningful done,” written by President Obama in his book, The Audacity of Hope.