It’s the second day of Clinton’s Global Initiative Conference, and the Big Dawg has already secured more then $5 billion in donor commitments, including $3 billion for biofuels from Virgin’s Richard Branson. I remember last year’s conference generated some churlish press for Clinton, whose commitment to charity, rather than self-promotion, was considered suspect. A year later though, he’s topped the previous conference’s donation totals in the first few days, and will probably have secured nearly $10 billion (including last year’s haul) when all is said and done. That’s the sort of self-promotion I can get behind.
Ezra Klein is a former Prospect writer and current editor-in-chief at Vox. His work has appeared in the LA Times, The Guardian, The Washington Monthly, The New Republic, Slate, and The Columbia Journalism Review. He’s been a commentator on MSNBC, CNN, NPR, and more. More by Ezra Klein