A few years ago, I went to an expensive industry conference. It was a conference for the energy industry, and was hosted in a huge corporate conference center. Tickets to the conference were close to 1K per attendee, and it cost between 15K-100K to have a exhibition booth. The conference sprawled across the three biggest halls in the center, and there were thousands of attendees and hundreds of exhibitors. Bill Clinton was the paid speaker on day two of the conference and he spoke for attendees only.

I shuffled in early, as seating was limited and first come first serve. I sat down with a few other people from my company a few rows back. Bill Clinton came out to applause from the entire crowd. He spoke for about 45 minutes. The speech started with a series of generic thank you’s to the conference and the sponsors of the conference. He then spoke about the overall state of our industry. His insights were nothing special. It was basically a “cliff’s notes” version of what was going on that year, but it was peppered with witty Bill Clinton humor, and a general optimism and enthusiasm about our industry. He sprinkled a few statistics throughout the speech, and was sure to touch on all the right buzz words. His praise was effusive for our industry, but not in any specific way. More like a playing the crowd kind of way.

As I waited to leave the hall, I came away with three impressions.

1. It was not a particularly interesting speech from an industry perspective. The whole thing sounded like he basically had staff research the state of the industry and put together a speech over a couple days, which he then edited to include a personal touch of his own humor and anecdotes.

2. It sounded like he did this A LOT.

3. It made me feel sort of sad to see how old and feeble he looked. The last time I had seen Bill speak was when he was running for his first term as President. He looked like a different man.

Despite how disappointing the whole thing was, he was a big draw for the conference. People had been talking about getting a chance to see him back at the office before it was decided who would go. For everyone who didn’t get a chance to go, “did you see Bill?” was the choice small talk for the next few days. Hillary Clinton’s (and to some extent Bill Clinton’s) paid speeches have become a major talking point in this campaign. Everyone wondering what Hillary possibly could have said in 30 minutes that was worth 250K is missing the point. These people are celebrities. They are booked to deliver paid speeches, because it benefits those who book them in some way. You might as well ask what Kanye West could possibly say in 45 minutes at Madison Square Garden that would be worth 250K to the promoter.

I have no doubt that Hillary does not want to release the transcripts of those speeches because those pouring through them for a gotcha news story or to prove a point, will surely find praise for the institutions she was speaking on behalf of. In this political climate, that would be a bad news cycle for her. I also have no doubt that she also showered glowing praise on the countless colleges whose commission speeches she spoke at, as well as praised the accomplishments of whatever non-profit she spoke on behalf of. Does anyone really think her speech to the US Green building council in 2013 was fair and balanced about negative aspects of what the Green building council has done? No. These are performances for a purpose.

Personally, I am surprised she just doesn’t come out and say the following.

For many years I worked as a paid speaker. I gave speeches to many different organizations in many different industries, who all paid me very well. It was my job, and part of my job was to be inspiring, encouraging, and flattering to those people in the audience and those who paid me.

I’m not sure what people expect to find in these corporate event speeches she gave dozens of throughout the year. Backroom promises? Revelations about how she plans to screw the middle class? Confessions of cardinal sins? No company or speaker would be so stupid as to include that sort of thing in a corporate event speech anyway.

There are many important issues to be focusing on right now in this race and debate, but this isn’t one of them.