“We have to get out of the mindset where somehow elite opinion is always on the side of doing things that really disadvantage the vast majority of Americans,” Clinton said during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos at the Conrad Hilton Hotel in downtown Indianapolis. “I’m not going to put my lot in with economists because I know if we did it right ... we would design it in such a way that it would be implemented effectively.”

The gas tax, one of the few policy differences between Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, has been a potent issue as their campaigns head toward the Tuesday finish line in Indiana and North Carolina.