She shares five lessons she learned as secretary of state, sounding a bit Mitch Albom with the upbeat adages. (“Leadership is a team sport.” “You can’t win if you don’t show up.” “A whisper can be louder than a shout.”)
She reminisces about her mother, Dorothy Rodham, and tells the oft-shared story of the first time she heard her husband’s Southern drawl as he described “the size of watermelons in Arkansas.”
She will stick around for handshakes and picture-taking, but that must be negotiated as part of her fee, estimated at upward of $200,000.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is hitting the paid speechmaking circuit, drawing huge crowds of conventioneers from groups like the American Society of Travel Agents and the National Association of Realtors.
She is joining what has turned into a lucrative branch of the Clinton family business: Bill Clinton earned $13.4 million from speeches in 2011, according to financial disclosure reports, and has collected more than $100 million in speaking fees since leaving the White House. He brings in as much as $700,000 for a single address, an amount he collected after he appeared before a company in Lagos, Nigeria.
The events are also giving Mrs. Clinton large captive crowds as she considers a run for president in 2016. She often indulges her inner policy wonk, along with the softer family chitchat, according to several people who have attended her speeches this summer.
Last month, about 17,000 people lined up just after dawn outside McCormick Place, a convention center in Chicago, where Mrs. Clinton, in prepared remarks, talked about health care changes, as well as border security and immigration. “I hope it’s heading to a new law that will resolve a lot of these issues,” she told the crowd. “It’s way overdue.”
