Price of Speaking on Poverty: $55,000

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, who recently proposed an educational policy that urged "every financial barrier" be removed for American kids who want to go to college, has been going to college himself -- as a high paid speaker, his financial records show.

The candidate charged a whopping $55,000 to speak at to a crowd of 1,787 the taxpayer-funded University of California at Davis on Jan. 9, 2006 last year, Joe Martin, the public relations officer for the campus' Mondavi Center confirmed Monday.

What was his topic: "Poverty, the great moral issue facing America."

I wonder if he'll be donating that $55k to charity like a good little socialist. Oh, I forgot: compassion is for the little people to cough up.