Bill and Hillary Clinton Made $30 Million In Past 16 Months

The numbers are staggering and do suggest a problem for Hillary Clinton.

How can she be the face for middle-America in the 2016 presidential election and feel the sting of wages that have stagnated across the country while her family made $30 million dollars in the past 16 months?

Perceptions are vitally important in politics and facts such as the ones released this weekend poses a hurdle that Hillary needs to address sooner rather than later.  She needs to break past the image that is being cast of her as a very rich person who has lost touch from where she came.

There is no way to make a claim the money was not made from speechmaking or that she and her husband, Bill, are not now in at least the top 0.1% of the population when it comes to incomes.    There is nothing wrong with being on the speech circuit or making lots of money.  Bravo for the ability to make that happen.  But with the money comes an image issue that makes for complicated politics.

Hillary needs to find a way to break out into the open and confront in a more powerful way a connection with the country about her concerns over the need for more jobs and far healthier wages at a time when she is being cast as being out of touch.  If she does not the Republican Party will define her and once that is done it will be much harder to reverse the narrative.