Barack Obama is taking the cash-in possibilities available to ex-presidents to new heights, building on the Clinton Foundation money machine model with an added touch of his unique blend of personal entitlement clothed in the language of leftist egalitarianism.
The $850 million Obama Presidential Center is scheduled to open on June 19. The choice of day is no coincidence. That is Juneteenth, the woke official federal holiday ostensibly dedicated to the abolition of slavery that critics would say is more about reopening old wounds of racial divisiveness.
Two-Tiered Obama ‘Experience’
“[F]ederal tax filings show the Obama Foundation paid CEO Valerie Jarrett $740,000 in 2024 while several former Obama White House officials collected six-figure salaries as foundation executives,” Fox News reported March 11. “Jarrett, one of the Obamas’ closest advisors, took over as CEO in 2021 and is among six of the foundation’s 10 highest-paid executives who previously held senior roles in the Obama administration or campaign, according to a review of the foundation's tax filings from 2018 to 2024.”
Jarrett hardly needs the extra dough. She is one of the most uber-connected Democrats in the country, and a major player in the corporate world. “Jarrett serves on the boards of Walgreens.com, Inc., Ralph Lauren Corporation, Ariel Investments, The University of Chicago, and the Sesame Street Workshop. Jarrett also serves on the Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women Advisory Board, the Bank of America Enterprise Executive Development Council, and the Microsoft Advisory Council,” her official Obama Foundation bio reads.
One day before this cozy arrangement was revealed, the Foundation announced March 10 that it is seeking 100 “skilled” unpaid volunteers to serve as working “ambassadors” at the presidential center. Who needs a paycheck? For the plebian Obama Democrat, just being part of the team should be its own reward.
“The Obama Presidential Center is a place where the world meets the best of the city of Chicago, and our volunteers will help bring that vision to life every day,” Jarrett declared of the golden opportunity to perform free labor for the Obamas and their high-salaried intimates. “As Ambassadors, they will create a welcoming and inclusive experience for visitors while representing the strength, resilience, and leadership of this community. Together, we are building something that inspires service, connection, and action far beyond our walls.”
None of this is new. Since its inception, the Obama Foundation has rivaled the Clinton Foundation in terms of financial crassness and sheer tackiness. Its courting of Big Money has been every bit as shameless as a $500,000 Hunter Biden signed original abstract painting. Dropping terms such as “inclusive” and “social justice” has always been a go-to way to shake the money tree.
This Civil Rights Exhibit Is Brought to You By...
“The Obama Presidential Center to Honor Civil Rights and Social Justice Heroes ‘On Whose Shoulders We Stand’ in Newly Named Spaces,” a December 2021 Foundation news release was titled.
These “inclusive spaces” were financially sponsored by well-heeled donors. Think the George Washington Presidential Library selling naming rights to its cherry tree-and-axe exhibit and you are on the right track. But isn’t it so much worse when it’s supposedly done in the name of fighting injustice?
It all began when Amazon multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos in November 2021 handed over a crisp $100 million to name the Obama Presidential Center Plaza after the “civil rights icon” of his choice.
“In addition to the gift from Jeff Bezos that led to the naming of the Plaza after Congressman John Lewis, the following donors who are participating in the new naming approach include...” the cheesy release unapologetically read before listing a slew of purchased examples.
“Foundation board member Michael Sacks and his wife Cari Sacks... have opted to name a Museum exhibit on civic education and empowerment at the Center in honor of the late Timuel Black. Mr. Black was a Chicago native and civil rights leader who helped end segregation in Chicago Public Schools and housing in the 1960s through his work as an educator and administrator,” the Foundation stated.
Sacks has given the Obama Foundation well over $1 million over the years.
“Fellow board member Penny Pritzker and her husband Dr. Bryan Traubert... will name the Auditorium, a signature space at the Center, in honor of Holocaust survivor and political activist, Elie Wiesel,” the release continues.
Pritzker, a member of the mega-wealthy family that is heir to the Hyatt Hotel empire, has a net worth of over $4 billion.
The pomposity of the Presidential Center, already manifested in its garish physical appearance, which social media users have slammed as resembling a woke, dystopian Death Star, will be further elevated by a generous display of “contemporary art.”
“With the couple’s love of art as impetus, 30 famous and not-so-famous artists (including two duos) have been commissioned to create 28 large-scale works for the four-building complex on 19.3 acres on Chicago’s South Side,” The Chicago Sun-Times reported March 19.
As always, progressive social sloganeering is haphazardly tossed into the pretentiousness.
“The arts,” Louise Bernard, senior vice president of the Obama Foundation and director of the Obama Presidential Center Museum, told the Sun-Times, “are helping us to tell a broader story about democracy, about freedom of expression, about the relationship between creativity and innovation and the work that artists do in helping us to imagine the world as it is and the world as it ought to be.”
Though turning their presidential alumni status into an enormous cash cow has been a shared enthusiasm, there is and always has been a major difference between Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. The ways they chase their post-White House money piles have brought it all the more to the fore.
Bill Clinton wants you to like him. Barack Obama wants you to revere him.
Clinton wants to shake your hand and win you over, to capture the sympathy of whatever room he is in. Obama expects the entire room to genuflect before him in gratitude for his mere presence.
It is that sense of entitlement, of royal prerogatives and two-tiered “democracy,” that will embody the artificial soul of Barack and Michelle’s Chicago monstrosity.
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