Bill and Hillary Clinton are Wealthy!

From the New York Times:

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and former President Bill Clinton released tax data Friday showing they earned $109 million over the last eight years, an ascent into the uppermost tier of American taxpayers that seemed unimaginable in 2001, when they left the White House with little money and facing millions in legal bills.

The bulk of their wealth has come from speaking and book-writing, which together account for almost $92 million, including a $15 million advance — larger than previously thought — from Mr. Clinton’s 2004 autobiography, “My Life.” The former president’s vigorous lecture schedule, where his speeches command upwards of $250,000, brought in almost $52 million.

During that time, the Clintons paid $33.8 million in federal taxes and claimed deductions for $10.2 million in charitable contributions. The contributions went to a family foundation run by the Clintons that has given away only about half of the money they put into it, and most of that was last year, after Mrs. Clinton declared her candidacy.

Mrs. Clinton’s campaign released the eight years of income tax information late Friday, following a rising clamor on the campaign trail for her to follow the lead of her opponent, Senator Barack Obama, who had previously disclosed his tax returns for the same period. In what proved to be an awkward juxtaposition, the disclosure of the records — which revealed the Clintons to be in the top one-hundredth of 1 percent, or roughly 14,500, of all taxpayers — came on the day that Mrs. Clinton called for the creation of a cabinet-level post to tackle poverty.

In releasing seven years of tax returns, plus a summary of income for last year, the Clinton campaign noted that the couple had disclosed all their income tax records since Mr. Clinton was governor of Arkansas. Neither Mr. Obama, of Illinois, nor Senator John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee, has released his 2007 tax-return information, and Mr. McCain has not released tax returns from previous years.

“The Clintons have now made public 30 years of tax returns, a record matched by few people in public service,” said Jay Carson, a campaign spokesman. “None of Hillary Clinton’s presidential opponents have revealed anything close to this amount of personal financial information.”

Mr. Obama’s tax returns show that he and his wife, Michelle, reported about $1 million in income in 2006, much of it from his book deals. Mr. McCain’s wife, Cindy, an heiress to a beer distributorship fortune, is believed to be worth tens of millions of dollars, but the exact amount is unclear.

Finally, we get to pour over the Clinton tax returns. What a way to spend a weekend in Spring! What could be more enjoyable?

The returns reveal what I expected. The Clintons have a lot of money.

The Obamas are wealthy and so are the McCains.

What does this information tell us?

The presidential candidates are rich. They're privileged. They're powerful.

Tell me something I don't know.

If there's a lesson to be learned here I guess it's that having tons of money doesn't guarantee that you get what you want.