Dem
47
GOP
53
The last few Republican presidents, on their retirements, did the usual post-presidency things: a few paid speeches, service on corporate boards, taking up a new hobby or two, and so forth. The last few Democratic retirees, by contrast, have pursued careers at least partly rooted in the world of entertainment. It's a fun and potentially lucrative way to keep one's hand in the game, and to maintain some level of influence, we suppose.
While Bill Clinton dabbled a bit in working as an entertainer, it was Barack Obama who really went all-in on it. The 44th president has a development deal with Netflix, has signed two different podcast deals, and has produced several documentaries. He's even got a couple of Emmy awards, for narrating Working: What We Do All Day and Our Great National Parks.
Yesterday, Joe Biden announced that he will follow his predecessor's lead, and sign with Creative Artists Agency to represent him in booking speaking engagements and in other entertainment-related ventures. That's the same agency that represents the Obamas. It's also the same agency that represented Biden while he was out of office from 2017-21, so it's not exactly an unexpected pick. In any case, unlike, say, a George W. Bush, Biden is apparently not going to disappear into semi-obscurity. As we have noted before, we tend to think these kinds of presidents-as-highly-paid-celebrities arrangements are in bad taste, and are certainly a case of profiting off the presidency. But somehow, Biden and Obama both neglected to get us on the phone and to ask for our opinions before signing on the dotted line. We KNEW we should have signed up for call waiting.
The fellow whose post-presidential career is more to our tastes, of course, is Jimmy Carter. And while we are on the general subjects of "Carter" and "the entertainment industry," we might as well note that the now-deceased former president won a Grammy this weekend, for his narration of Last Sundays in Plains: A Centennial Celebration. The competition he beat out includes Barbra Streisand, Dolly Parton, George Clinton and The Beatles, which is a rather motley group of nominees. This was Carter's fourth win in the spoken word category (a record) out of 13 lifetime nominations. Anyhow, congratulations to the Peanut Farmer and his family. Oh, and don't feel too bad for The Beatles, because they won in a different category. So, congrats to them, too. (Z)