<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;" align="center">Former President Barrick Obama is getting criticized for agreeing to do a speech at the Wall Street firm Cantor-Fitzgerald for the steep fee of $400,000. Both fellow political leaders, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren made statements about how they were &ldquo;troubled&rdquo; by it.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">&ldquo;I think it just does not look good. It&#8217;s not a good idea. And, you know, I&#8217;m sorry that President Obama made that choice. He&#8217;s a private citizen. I just think it is distasteful,&rdquo; said Sanders. &#8220;Wall Street has incredible power, and I would have hoped that the president would not have given a speech like this.&rdquo;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">CNN</em> contributor Van Jones doesn&rsquo;t think the former president&rsquo;s speech fee is &ldquo;distasteful,&rdquo; but that Obama should complete a &ldquo;poverty tour&rdquo; before accepting high paying speeches.  ;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">He believes that this could help minimize the backlash from other politicians and the public.  ;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">&ldquo;It&#8217;s not distasteful. You think that he started off talking to those kids in Chicago and we need a Bobby Kennedy in this country and I hope that he will do a tour, go to Apalachicola, go to Native American reservations where they are shoving these pipelines down their throats and they don&#8217;t have a clean running water. Go to south central. Go to the Arizona border where you have a lot of poverty,&rdquo; said Jones to <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">CNN</em>&rsquo;s Jack Tapper.  ;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">&ldquo;If he would do a poverty tour first &#8212; listen, he should not be the first president that has to be broke. Listen, every other president went out there and gave big speeches. Don&#8217;t hold him to a double standard &#8212; don&#8217;t double standard him.&rdquo;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Tapper also mentioned Obama&rsquo;s recent $60 million book deal. Obama is expected to earn as much as $800,000 from only doing two speaking engagements scheduled this year. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> ;</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong>Author&rsquo;s note: </strong>Every former president usually gets backlash for the high fees they fetch for doing post-presidency speaking engagements. Jones has a point about Obama being able to make a living, but he makes a better point about having Obama do a &ldquo;poverty tour&rdquo; first. While, Jones is recommending the tour because he thinks this could help Obama&rsquo;s reputation, we think it would be a good way for him to see how he screwed up and to see firsthand the impact his presidency had.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong>Editor&#8217;s note:</strong> This may be the one an only time I ever agree with Van Jones. But Obama needs to see the mess that he made. He had 8 years, he did nothing.</p>
<p> ;</p>