"...If You're Winter Gift Shopping For HIllary, Skip The Muffler....She's Good..."

The problem Hillary is having getting people to buy her message about money isn't that it's meandering.

Or that it's messy.

Or even that it's mealy mouthed.

More in a moment.

In her second presidential campaign, Clinton clearly doesn't want to win through a war of attrition. She's sick of Sanders casting himself as the protector of the progressive realm against the corrupting influence of the Clintons, and she is ready to extinguish the Bern now.

After yet another Sanders swipe at Clinton as part of a political establishment bankrolled by Wall Street and drug companies, she unloaded.

"Time and time again, by innuendo, by insinuation, there is this attack that he is putting forth which really comes down to, you know, anybody who ever took donations or speaking fees from any interest group has to be bought. And I just absolutely reject that, senator, and I really don't think these kinds of attacks by insinuation are worthy of you. And enough is enough," Clinton said.

Then she challenged him: "If you've got something to say, say it directly, but you will not find that I ever changed a view or a vote because of any donation I ever received."

And finally, Clinton made it just a little bit more personal, saying: "I think it's time to end the very artful smear that you and your campaign have been carrying out in recent weeks."

But, at the same time....

Wall Street continues to be full of potholes for the former secretary of state. 

Her pragmatism and her accusations of an "artful smear" on Sanders' part don't erase the political problem caused by her paid speeches at Goldman Sachs -- which she had joked about in a CNN town hall the night before, saying with a laugh that the $675,000 in speaking fees she received was what they'd offered. 

On Thursday, Clinton admitted her mistake. 

"I may not have done the job I should in explaining my record," she said, arguing that she was tough on bankers behind closed doors and has been in the 2016 campaign, as well.

Uh, yo, there, Hill....to paraphrase our down under buddy, Crocodile Dundee....

"...that's not a mistake......now....that's a mistake...."

And, in this case, the mistake that is the mistake is either the inability to read and understand (unlikely given Hillary's long experience at playing the game) or inability to lock on to a way to once and for all deal with (much more likely given Hillary's long experience at playing the game) with the unavoidable, and inevitable, phrase that pays in the artful smearing less sophisticated folks know better as "politics".

Perception is reality.

In this instance, we're talking the theory proven, to borrow a Hillary phrase, "time and time again" that people, average, everyday, go to work, come home and wonder how to run out of month before  they run out of money people aren't likely to change their minds about something, or someone, once they have formed an opinion about that something or someone.

Oh. It's possible.

But, it's also possible that Miley and Liam will live happily every after because she'll give up acting like a budget brand circa 80's Madonna on stage, complete with porn style balloon animals.

It's just not likely.

Just like the likelihood that people who don't like Hillary, who don't believe Hillary and who don't trust Hillary will just up and decide, "what the hell, let's like, believe and trust Hillary" because she says she's not beholden to all them fat cat, Silver Cloud ridin', country club memberin' uber-rich corporate CEO's.

Oh. Well, if she says she's not beholden, then, surely, she must not be beholden.

Matter of fact, if you need any further convincing, just listen to any of the hundreds of speeches she's going to give between now and November 8.

And, bless her heart, she's giving all of those speeches at no charge.

As opposed to the 675 grand she scored from the Goldman Sachs chats.

But, only, you know, because that's what they offered.

And right there, kids, is the problem that Hillary is having getting people to buy her message about money.

It's not that its meandering.

Or messy.

Or even mealy mouthed.

It's that the message is muffled.

Which is what happens to the sound of someone speaking....

...when they try to speak from so far down inside someone's pocket.