Clinton vs. Clinton

Hillary Clinton apparently plans to base her presidential campaign on the noble goals of greater fairness and shared sacrifice.

She has already lambasted vast differences in compensation. "The average CEO makes about 300 times what the average worker makes," Clinton warned.

She is right -- but can best appreciate that fact from her own career and family.

Recently, Clinton has demanded up to $300,000 for brief 30-minute speeches. She apparently believes in the free-market theory that on the lecture circuit, speakers -- like CEOs -- should be paid as much as the market can bear.

At UCLA recently, Clinton's fee worked out to about $165 per second. In three minutes of autobiographical chitchat, Clinton pulled in more than the average full-time fast-food worker makes in a year. Note that, directly or indirectly, universities pass such charges on to their student customers, who are currently collectively in debt to the tune of more than $1 trillion.

Or perhaps Clinton learned of pay unfairness from her own daughter, Chelsea. Without a shred of journalistic experience, Chelsea Clinton earned $600,000 a year from NBC News. That rate worked out to more than $26,000 a minute for each minute Chelsea appeared on air.

To cement her populist credentials, Hillary Clinton is also attacking big-bucks hedge funds. She made a good point when she thundered in Iowa earlier this month, "There's something wrong when hedge fund managers pay lower tax rates than nurses or the truckers that I saw on I-80 as I was driving here."

But Clinton must know intimately about such financial speculators and their low tax rates.

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