Ruby Cramer has a great look at the “shadow campaign” or “pre-campaign” coming put together to elect Hillary Clinton as president.

“Political operatives wandered the halls of the hotel between meetings, while two or three reporters hung around near the elevators, aimless. What they were covering, how it would all work, and exactly to what end wasn’t clear at the time. But that small, scattered scene at the conference — a daylong series of panel discussions billed as a 2016 “strategy session” — marked the loose beginnings of a coordinated, unprecedented early effort to elect a U.S. president.”

“Three organizations make up what, together, is considered a formidable triad: Ready for Hillary, Correct the Record, Priorities USA. Respectively, the groups have amassed Clinton supporters, defended her in the press, and made preparations to raise millions to augment her possible campaign.”

[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]Many believe the four-year head start President Obama had over Mitt Romney in planning a campaign made all the difference in 2012. That’s what Democrats are trying to do for Clinton. [/speech_bubble]

Ryan Lizza: “It was an odd event: reporters asked questions about Hillary Clinton’s plans and policy agenda to a group of people who knew as little as anyone about her presumptive campaign and its messaging. In that sense, the Ready for Hillary meeting was the perfect embodiment of the Democrats’ current Hillary problem: everyone in the party seems to be supporting her, and yet nobody can articulate exactly why.”

“The meeting came at the end of an eventful week—one that only underscored Clinton’s continued reluctance to explain what she might want to do as President. In Congress, the Senate debated two major issues: the Keystone XL pipeline and reform of the National Security Agency. Clinton remained silent about both.”

Ready for Hillary has amassed contact information from approximately 3 million people for a potential presidential campaign by Hillary Clinton, USA Today reports.

“Ready for Hillary’s list of supporters will be rented or sold to the Clinton campaign… Alternatively, Ready for Hillary will send e-mails asking for donations to go directly to the Clinton campaign, which essentially provides the campaign with donor information for free…. The list alone would be a big advantage for a presidential campaign to have on Day One, but the infrastructure assembling to support Clinton goes beyond Ready for Hillary.”

“Hillary Clinton is set to give a paid speech at a women’s conference in Silicon Valley in February, an appearance that indicates her time on the speaking circuit is not yet coming to an end with a likely presidential campaign looming,” Politico reports.

“The Feb. 24 appearance seems at odds with suggestions in the media that she is about to wind down her speaking schedule in the coming weeks… Clinton could, of course, cancel the appearance or decline a speaking fee if she announces a campaign before the speech. It’s highly unlikely she would continue to give paid speeches once she’s a candidate, something Republican Rudy Giuliani did in 2007 and took heat for.”

“But the fact that Clinton is still signing up for speeches also gives weight to what a number of people close to her say: that she hasn’t completely made up her mind about running.”

First Read: “One of the emerging pieces of conventional wisdom is how Hillary Clinton — because she’s white, because she’s a woman — could outperform Obama among some key demographic groups. But what’s striking in our NBC/WSJ poll is how SIMILAR the two are; perhaps she will over perform with some older white voters but right now, there isn’t a lot of evidence of that.”

Bloomberg: “The complicated political machine known as Clintonland is revving its engine, as outside groups, top donors, and prospective aides begin preparing for an anticipated formal announcement of her presidential candidacy early next year. In the coming week alone there will be a half-dozen fundraisers aimed at greasing the path toward her 2016 debut. Some events are aimed at scooping up checks for existing pro-Clinton groups, while others will pocket financial “commitments” for a future campaign account.”

“While people close to Clinton caution that no final decisions have been made, they say the former secretary of state has shifted her focus from public events and paid speeches to private conversations about the guts of a campaign–messaging, staff, money. Her goal, they say, is to launch with a fully formed political operation.”

“Hillary Clinton is expected to announce in January that she will run for president… and the shape of that effort is becoming clear — with a campaign operation headquartered in the New York City suburbs and a campaign message that plays up the possibility of electing the first female president much more so than in 2008,” NBC News reports.

“Party sources emphasize there is still a small chance the former first lady will opt not to run, and some Democrats say there is no reason for her to begin a campaign so soon. But she is expected to begin preparation for a campaign over the next two months, while also giving speeches on some of her favorite causes, such as appearances at the Massachusetts Conference for Women and the League of Conservation Voters in December.”

“When staffers and supporters of Ready for Hillary gather Friday at a conference in Manhattan, the all-day event will mark the beginning of the end for the grass-roots super PAC that was an impressive branding exercise that, for better or worse, helped freeze the field of competition against Hillary Clinton for 2016,” Politico reports.

“The lower-dollar super PAC is set to begin its wind-down once Hillary Clinton declares her candidacy for president — something her allies insist she still may not do but that most expect her to.”

“The top minds in the proto-Hillary Clinton 2016 campaign infrastructure are already gaming out Electoral College scenarios. What they think they have is a candidate who could compete in a handful of traditionally red states, putting Republicans on the defensive and increasing her chances of winning the White House,” TPM reports.

“There are two buckets of states potentially in play. Arkansas, Indiana and Missouri comprise one bucket. The first is a somewhat unique case, given Clinton’s history there, while the other two were razor-thin in 2008, but the principle is the same: Clinton has a record of appealing to white working-class voters — especially women — and they could be enough when paired with the Obama coalition to pull out a win.”

“The second bucket consists of Arizona and Georgia, two states that Democrats believe are demographically trending toward them, a process that could accelerate with the voter turnout that usually occurs in presidential elections.”

The Fix: “The first bucket of states is ridiculous. The second is plausible — but almost certainly not in 2016.”

National Journal: “If Clinton hopes to return to the White House after the 2016 election, she’d better hope the people around her follow that advice better than they did last time. The positioning for jobs on a campaign that doesn’t even exist has already quietly begun. And it has the potential to get ugly.”

“Every presidential campaign faces difficult and potentially messy staffing choices, as it balances the competing desires to reward loyalty, make room for new ideas, and impose command and control. Simple math dictates that there will be bruised egos: There are too many people who want good jobs, and not nearly enough to go around.”

“But no presidential candidate in recent memory has accumulated as many potential bruised egos as Hillary Clinton. The Clintons are famous for cultivating friends and staff, and after 30-plus years in politics, traveling from the Arkansas governor’s mansion to the White House to the Senate to a presidential campaign to the State Department, there are lots and lots of people who would like—and believe they deserve—a piece of the action. And that doesn’t even include people who worked for Obama or other Democratic campaigns who want in.”