“The fact Hillary Clinton felt the need to waffle on a question about whether she is a liar is precisely why two-thirds of the American people think she’s dishonest and untrustworthy," RNC spokesman Michael Short said in a statement.

The Clinton campaign did not respond to a request for comment or clarification.

Elihaas:

“You know fam, that whole fake it and wing it until you can make it way of the too slick… that slick con that folks like the Clintons pull to wangle their way into mostly unearned esteem and inevitability…

It’s that slick spin that sells you the Bill Clinton is the ‘greatest’ politician ever (sometimes they qualify that with the word ‘retail’) …That it was all thanks to him and his one speech at the DNC that President Obama was re-elected…

It’s that same slick spin that force-feeds the notion of Hillary as the ‘smartest, most accomplished, most qualified and most experienced’ female politician …at first by virtue of having been first lady for 8 years, then because she carpetbagged her way into the Senate via their same strong-arming tactics, and lately, the laughable and blatantly false assertion that President Obama who declined to make her his V.P twice, somehow made her SoS because he ‘trusted’ her ‘judgement’…(It all boils down to that same ‘extraction of concessions’ she repeatedly talked about last night as she and Bernie Sanders went back and forth on normalizing relationships with Iran. How ironic.)

And don’t forget that it was *she* who advised President Obama on that very tough decision on whether to take Bin Laden out or not…LOL…For the duration of her time as SoS, President Obama mostly conferred with and relied on his National Security team led by Tom Donilon…It was only after John Kerry took over as SoS, that we saw the natural and seamless coordination of high stakes foreign policy between the President and his SoS return..

Our nation’s infrastructure is collapsing, and the American people know it.  Every day, they drive on roads with unforgiving potholes and over bridges that are in disrepair.  They wait in traffic jams and ride in railroads and subways that are overcrowded.  They see airports bursting at the seams.

For too many years, we have dramatically underfunded the physical infrastructure that our economy depends on.  That is why I have proposed the Rebuild America Act, to invest $1 trillion over five years to modernize our infrastructure.  It would be paid for by closing loopholes that allow profitable corporations to avoid paying taxes by, among other things, shifting their profits to the Cayman Islands and other offshore tax havens.

Importantly, the Rebuild America Act will support more than thirteen million good-paying jobs – jobs that our economy desperately needs.

                                                                                                — Senator Bernie Sanders

Ms. Warren and many other politicians support reinstating Glass Steagall to help rebuild the wall between investment banking and commercial banking, while taking into account contemporary issues in the financial sector that were non-existent or irrelevant when Glass Steagall was first introduced in 1933. “By itself, the 21st century Glass Steagall Act will not end too big to fail and implicit government subsidies, but it will make financial institutions smarter and safer, and move us in the right direction,” she added.

Ms. Clinton’s comprehensive Wall Street Reform plan has a lot of positive attributes—many of which Ms. Warren and Mr. Sanders agree with—but the dismissal of reinstating Glass Steagall weakens her plan significantly. In her Times op-ed she argued that “we need to tackle excessive risk wherever it lurks, not just the banks.” Ms. Clinton attempts to debunk the reinstatement of the Glass Steagall Act as ineffective, but given the political power of big banks—with the five largest on Wall Street currently holding 45 percent of the nation’s banking assets compared to just 25 percent in 2000—her cautious reforms are insufficient.

Supporting Ms. Warren and Mr. McCain’s 21st century Glass Steagall Act should be a staple of both Ms. Clinton and Mr. Sanders’ Wall Street reforms, but Ms. Clinton is opting for a less aggressive approach, which doesn’t help distance her from Wall Street. Some of the biggest donations to the Clinton Foundation came from Bank of America, CitiGroup and Goldman Sachs. In the second Democratic debate, she fumbled an explanation of her Wall Street ties, going off on a rant about 9/11. Ms. Clinton’s disregard for Glass Steagall is indicative of her unwillingness to actually usher in change on Wall Street by holding banks accountable for their actions. Her vague talking points are just business as usual; political rhetoric from a well-seasoned lawyer who knows what to say to garner as much support as possible.

1. Too-big-to-fail banks are bigger, riskier, and more ungovernable than ever

America’s largest banking institutions are even larger now than they were before the 2008 financial crisis. The nation’s six largest banks issue more than two thirds of all credit cards and more than a third of all mortgages. They control 95 percent of all derivatives and hold more than 40 percent of all US bank deposits.

2. The argument that Glass-Steagall didn’t cause the 2008 financial crisis is wrong.

Hillary Clinton told the Des Moines Register that “a lot of what caused the risk that led to the collapse came from institutions that were not big banks.” This is part of a longstanding pattern, in which she largely absolves the big banks from culpability for the 2008 crisis while emphasizing “shadow banking” in her own Wall Street plan.

Secretary Clinton returned to that theme during Saturday’s debate, pointing an accusing finger at non-bank entities like AIG and Lehman Brothers while giving a pass to Wall Street’s biggest banks for their role in the crisis.

3. Repeal of the Act has not worked as promised.

Given the risks associated with the repeal of Glass-Steagall, what about the benefits? Turns out there aren’t many.

We were told that repealing Glass-Steagall would lead to more efficiency and lower costs, but neither of these promises has come true. No less an expert than John Reed, former CEO of Citigroup, now says those claims were wrong. Reed wrote in a recent op-ed (behind a firewall) that “there are very few cost efficiencies that come from the merger of functions – indeed, there may be none at all.”

4. The repeal of Glass-Steagall is further corrupting the culture of banking – if such a thing is possible.

Sanders was right when he said on Saturday night that “the business model of Wall Street is fraud.” The traditional practice of what Sen. Elizabeth Warren calls “boring” banking – opening savings accounts, reviewing loans, and providing other customer services – has largely been supplanted by high-risk gambling and the aggressive hustling of dubious investments to unwary clients.

The level of fraud unearthed since the 2008 crisis is nothing short of breathtaking. (The fact that no senior banking executive has gone to prison for that fraud is, if anything, even more breathtaking.) How did that happen?

Clinton's strongest leads for the nomination are among seniors, women, lower- and middle-income as well as lower-educated Democrats, Easterners (the East being Clinton's current region as U.S. senator from New York), and Southerners (the South being her former region as first lady of Arkansas). Clinton's advantage over Obama among these groups ranges from 22 to 35 points. Clinton also enjoys solid leads among non-Hispanic whites, blacks, Westerners, and pre-seniors (aged 50 to 64).

The Age and Gender Divide

The influence of gender and age in voter preferences between the two leading Democratic candidates -- with Clinton most popular among women and seniors -- is evident when looking at the four major age/gender categories of voters. Clinton has a 30-point lead over Obama among women aged 50 and older, but trails Obama by two percentage points (not a statistically significant margin) among men aged 18 to 49. This is one of the few subgroups among whom Obama comes close to leading Clinton.

Age appears to prevail over gender when it comes to the other two age/gender groups: Clinton has a 21-point lead among older men, compared with a 14-point lead among younger women.