New Hampshire exit polls in the Democratic primary indicate that Bernie Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton among self-described liberals by 60-39. Okay. But he also beat her among moderates and conservatives by a nearly identical 60-37 margin.
They also show that among the one-third of all voters who said "honesty and trustworthiness" were the most important qualities of a candidate in determining their vote, Sanders beat Clinton by 95-5.
These data indicate that Sanders' victory was not the result of an ideological vote for a socialist but was due to a personal repudiation of a liar. It was Hillary's dearth of personal ethics and her lack of veracity, not her political ideology or her issue positions, that led to her smashing defeat in New Hampshire.
So when Hillary sought to co-opt and plagiarize Bernie's rhetoric in her concession speech, she did nothing to solve the problem that brought her low. Nor will any shift in her message or beheadings of her staff do much to help her.
It is not her position on the banks, TARP, Glass-Steagall, or campaign finance reform that is dragging her down. It is her e-mail scandal, Benghazi, and her personal speeches for fees that are causing her candidacy to crash.
Hillary can change her issue positions as frequently and as totally as she changes her hair style. She can flip on the Keystone Pipeline and flop on the Trans-Pacific Trade Deal. But she cannot go back and delete her lies, evasions, half-truths, and distortions. They live on video tape and in our memories, ready to spring to life as soon as she lies again.
This personal reputation is not something a new consultant can fix. All the kings horses and all the kings men cannot put Hillary back together again.
New Hampshire mean Hillary is outed. It's downhill from here.
Dick Morris is well known for hard-hitting, nonpartisan commentary about U.S. politics. He has written many books, including his 1997 best-selling memoir of the Clinton administration, "Behind the Oval Office, Winning the Presidency in the Nineties." His latest is "Power Grab: Obama's Dangerous Plan foe a One Party Nation." For more of his reports, Go Here Now.