DO MILLIONAIRES BACK HILLARY BECAUSE THEY THINK SHE'LL CODDLE THEM -- OR BECAUSE THEY THINK SHE WON'T?

Hillary-hating lefties are never going to stop reminding us of this, and we'll also hear it invoked by right-wingers in moments when they're pretending to be populists:

Millionaires' choice for president: Hillary

Millionaires are sharply divided on their choice for the next President of the U.S., according to the second CNBC Millionaire Survey released today. Yet if a vote were held today, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would be the overall favorite among millionaire voters.

The survey polled 500 people with investable assets of $1 million or more, which represents the top 8 percent of American households. According to the survey -- a poll evenly split between Democrats, Republicans and Independents -- Hillary Clinton is the top choice for 31 percent of millionaires....

The anti-Hillary lefty economic critique is that she's in the pocket of the rich, unlike, say, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders -- but you'll notice that there's considerable support for Warren and Sanders among the rich people questioned in this survey. In fact, it's a surprising poll -- at least 50% of respondents back one of those three candidates, while only 40% back Bush, Christie or Walker. (CNBC doesn't break out the "other" vote, but the other candidates in the survey were Joe Biden, Ted Cruz, and Rand Paul. I must say I'm surprised that Paul didn't rank higher.)

So, do these millionaires favor Democrats (or Sanders) out of greed? (That's the line right-wingers are going to use in citing this poll when they they're in faux-populist mode.) No -- not if we're to judge from the first CNBC Millionaire Survey:

CNBC survey shows millionaires want higher taxes to fix inequality

... CNBC's first-ever Millionaire Survey reveals that 51 percent of American millionaires believe inequality is a "major problem" for the U.S., and of those, nearly two-thirds support higher taxes on the wealthy and a higher minimum wage as ways to narrow the wealth gap.

The findings show that -- far from being a purely self-interested voting bloc -- American millionaires have complicated views when it comes to the wealth gap and opportunity in America.

... millionaires ... believe that cultural and family issues prevent many Americans from climbing the wealth ladder. They advocate improved education, higher taxes on the wealthy and better savings incentives for the poor and middle class as important changes that would reduce inequality....

Both of these surveys were conducted by the Spectrem Group, a market research firm specializing in the wealthy. I have no idea how accurate the surveys are. (I'm skeptical of the notion that the wealthy are "evenly split between Democrats, Republicans and Independents.")

But I'm bringing this up because the poll taps into a pool of millionaires who advocate redistribution of wealth. So the headline shouldn't be "greedy rich people like Hillary" -- it should be "rich people favor liberal economic policies, and like Hillary."

Is that an accurate portrayal of the rich? I don't know. Are the survey respondents making an accurate assessment of Hillary? I don't know that, either. But these rich respondents aren't backing her because they see her as the candidate who'll favor rich people over the rest of us.