Clinton will need to rebuild her campaign team, empower them and protect them when others in the Clinton orbit start to second-guess, as inevitably they will. She can choose from the best of the talent in her party. Names floated to play senior roles in her campaign include some of the brightest younger Democratic strategists who were part of her 2008 campaign. She also can draw on help from veterans of the Obama campaigns who helped build a sophisticated, high-tech, get-out-the-vote machine.
Clinton’s problem may be too many people willing to help. The creation of a pro-Clinton political action committee, Ready for Hillary, has caused headaches already. The Clintons would prefer to keep it at arm’s length and take no responsibility for it. But one after another loyalist has lent a hand, giving her the burden of an organization that appears to be almost semi-official but that may be doing things that not in her interest.
The Ready for Hillary PAC recently hired two Obama campaign veterans, whose task is to help build a grass-roots network of supporters. But it would be a mistake for Clinton to think she can outsource part of her voter identification and mobilization effort. Nor can she import what Ready for Hillary is doing. She would have to build it herself.
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