Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, an expected contender in the 2016 presidential election, has positioned herself to appeal to more moderate or even neoconservative audiences in recent days. Speaking to CNN on Sunday, she praised President George W. Bush's AIDS relief programs in Sub-Saharan Africa, saying his initiatives there make her "proud to be an American."

In the same interview, Clinton distanced herself from President Obama's foreign policy, suggesting that he has not made it clear how D.C. "intend[s] to lead and manage" international affairs. Clinton advocated a more interventionist approach, arguing that, "We have to go back out and sell ourselves" as guarantors of worldwide stability. Currently, the U.S. military has as many as 900 bases worldwide, and has ground troops or drones active in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Yemen.

Meanwhile, despite objections from supporters within her own party, Clinton has repeatedly spoken to audiences at large Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs and Ameriprise Financial. "The problem is these speeches give the impression that she's still in the Wall Street wing of the party," said Charles Chamberlain of the left-wing Democracy For America PAC.

If Clinton is elected President in 2016, the White House will have been in the hands of just three families — the Bushes, Clintons, and Obamas — for 32 years by the time her first term is complete. Bonnie Kristian

Republican senators Jeff Flake of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina have never been fans of Donald Trump, and both were quick to jump on his comments Wednesday night about a possible "rigged" election.

On Twitter, Flake called Trump's refusal to say if he will accept the results on Nov. 8 "beyond the pale," and Graham said he did a "great disservice" to the Republican Party and the United States by "continuing to suggest the outcome of this election is out of his hands and 'rigged' against him." If Trump loses on Nov. 8, Graham continued, "it will not be because the system is 'rigged' but because he failed as a candidate."

One of Trump's most ardent supporters in the Senate, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, tread lightly around his comments, saying in the spin room after the debate that "it would be wrong for a candidate to contest an election for light and transient reasons." Catherine Garcia

While many agree that Donald Trump had his best debate yet Wednesday night, it still wasn't enough to overcome Hillary Clinton in the snap polls. CNN found that 52 percent of debate watchers thought Clinton appeared to be the winner, while only 39 percent said the same of Trump. YouGov also showed Clinton ahead, at 49 percent to 39 percent among 1,503 registered voters.

Clinton's win wasn't unanimous with pollsters, though. Republican "public opinion guru" Frank Luntz showed Trump as the narrow winner, 14 to 12.

Trump lags behind Clinton 9 points in the most recent national poll. Jeva Lange

On Wednesday morning, firefighters in Portland, Oregon, responded to a gas leak at a commercial building anchored by a bagel shop, and then the building exploded, injuring eight people, including three firefighters, two police officers, and three civilians. "When we got there (at 9:10 a.m.), we evacuated the building," said NW Natural Gas spokeswoman Melissa Moore. Twenty minutes later, "there was an ignition. We don't know the source." Along with Portland Bagelworks, a tattoo parlor and an eyewear shop were also destroyed, and a building next door in the busy shopping district in Northwest Portland, on NW 23rd Street, was badly damaged.

NW Natural's Moore and Brittany Hughes, the manager of Bagelworks, said that a construction crew was excavating next door to the building and hit a natural gas line. In a news conference on Wednesday afternoon, Portland Fire Chief Mike Myers attributed the lack of life-threatening injury or death to early, key decisions by firefighters, especially a lieutenant at the scene. "I have not seen devastation like this in my entire career," he added. You can learn more, including a first-person account of the explosion, in the Associated Press report below. Peter Weber

Donald Trump has struggled to win over women voters, and he probably didn't help himself too much during the presidential debate when he interrupted Hillary Clinton to call her a "nasty woman." But just as Trump's supporters rallied around the title "deplorables" after an insult by Clinton, Clinton's female supporters are now reclaiming "nasty women" as their own:

And then there is the newly-minted NastyWomenGet S---Done.com. You'll never guess where it leads. Jeva Lange

A GOP strategist spent his Wednesday night insulting both Donald Trump and old men who sit in the park and feed squirrels.

After the final presidential debate, Steve Schmidt, an adviser to John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, told MSNBC's Brian Williams he found Trump's refusal to say if he will accept the results of the election "a disqualifying moment. It's a moment of clear and present danger to our constitutional order, to the Republic. It's unprecedented in the history of the country." He called on House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to "exhibit political courage, to put the country first, and to communicate very clearly that we have legitimate elections in this country and that is how we choose our leaders."

Schmidt gave Trump a bit of praise, saying he started off on a decent note, but as the debate went on, Trump was "provoked throughout, he became angrier, he lost control." On national security, he was "incoherent," acting like an "old man in the park feeding squirrels, arguing with himself on the question of Mosul, incoherent on the question of Aleppo, just somebody who has not prepared himself over the course of the campaign on these vital national security issues." Watch the video below. Catherine Garcia

There has been abundant speculation about Donald Trump possibly starting his own media organization or television channel if he loses the presidential election, but it looks like he may have gotten a head start Wednesday during the final presidential debate.

Trump aired live coverage of the debate with the message "if you’re tired of biased, mainstream media reporting (otherwise known as Crooked Hillary’s super PAC), tune into my Facebook Live broadcast." Pundits on his "channel" included retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn and former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, with an Ivanka Trump message and anti-Clinton ads running as "commercials." Trump also added a #TrumpTV section to his YouTube page, in case there was ever any question about what such a venture might be called.

At its peak, around 200,000 people were watching the Trump TV broadcast, BuzzFeed News reports, although that number leveled off to between 120,000 and 170,000 while the debate was underway. "The streaming infrastructure looks to be provided by Ride Side Broadcasting, a conservative video streaming network based out of Auburn, Alabama," BuzzFeed News also pointed out.

Recently it was revealed that Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, reportedly investigated financial possibilities for launching a Trump TV channel; Trump has so far denied he is considering creating a media organization. Jeva Lange

At Wednesday's final debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, Clinton noted pointedly that Trump isn't just saying the election will be "rigged," but he's also complained about "rigged" losses for years. She noted President Obama's riff on the Trump's rigged-election "whining," then dipped into late-night TV territory. "There was even a time when he didn't get an Emmy for his TV program three years in a row, where he started tweeting that the Emmys were rigged against him," Clinton noted. "Should have gotten it," Trump interjected. "This is how Donald thinks," Clinton continued. "And it's funny, but it's also really troubling." Peter Weber