3 Things We Know About Clinton’s Emerging Campaign

First Read: “First, by grabbing Obama’s chief pollster (Joel Benenson) and media consultant (Jim Margolis), Clinton has decided to enlist key parts of Obama’s campaign 2008-2012 team, discarding the folks who ran her polling and media in ’08…. When you add the fact that John Podesta is leaving the Obama White House to serve as a liaison between the Clinton campaign and White House (as well as to handle the Clinton Old Guard), it’s pretty easy to conclude that Clinton won’t be running away from Obama. In fact, it’s looking like she will be more connected to him than ever.”

“Two, we’ve learned that Clinton most likely won’t receive any real Democratic primary challenge, allowing her to focus on a general-election campaign much earlier than everyone else.”

“And three, the growing realization that 2016 is going to be the year of the political re-run or spinoff — you’ve got Romney, a Bush, a Paul, Huckabee, Santorum, and of course Clinton — is a potential problem for her… when it’s a growing cast of the same stale characters (or their relatives), it’s automatic to lump Clinton into that group. So she has to find a way to distance herself from that. Running as a historic candidate — trying to be the first female president — is a way to do that. But this could very well be her biggest challenge in 2016.”