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WASHINGTON (AP) Rather than keeping him at arm's length, Hillary Rodham Clinton is embracing President Barack Obama sometimes even literally.

Clinton had been expected to look for some ways to separate herself from the president to avoid the impression that having her in the White House would amount to a third Obama term. But as she prepares for another presidential campaign, Clinton has aligned herself with Obama far more often than not.

On Monday, a few hours after meeting Obama at the White House, Clinton tweeted a list of accomplishments of the president's health care law on its fifth anniversary. "Repeal those things? Embrace them!" she declared, posting an old photo of herself extending her arms to hug Obama at the White House.

The tactics carry risk with an electorate that often seeks change after one party runs the White House for eight years. Republicans are already warning voters that Clinton would merely cement Obama's most unpopular policies and continue in his vein.

"She will have to break with Obama significantly and substantively if she wants to win," said Phil Musser, a former executive director of the Republican Governors Association. "Obama is no Reagan, and America is ready for the end of his presidency, not the extension of it."

Clinton, who is expected to announce her campaign in April, hasn't presented an overarching message of where she would take the country. For now, she's talking about finding consensus and building on "what has worked in the past."

She has also begun taking on the Republican-led Congress recently blasting the House GOP budget plan on Twitter, the letter written by Senate Republicans that was seen as interference in Iran nuclear talks and delays in the confirmation Loretta Lynch as attorney general.

Aligning herself with Obama may pose fewer risks than once thought. While his approval rating is still under 50 percent, it has stabilized following a noticeable dip last year. Obama could help Clinton connect with the diverse coalition of voters who powered him to two victories. And perhaps more important, the economy is steadily improving, with job creation up and unemployment down to 5.5 percent.

Dan Pfeiffer, a longtime Obama adviser who recently left the White House, said that while he expects Clinton to break with the president when she actually disagrees with him, it would be unwise to create differences where none truly exists.

"Manufacturing agreement or disagreement to score some political points would be a mistake," Pfeiffer said. "Candidates that get all tangled up trying align with or separate from their party or their president have a very poor track record of success."

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Preparing for 2016 campaign, Hillary Clinton embracing Obama

Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton talked about her "complicated" relationship with the press during a keynote address at this year's Toner Prize Celebration. (The Toner Program in Political Reporting)

"I am all about new beginnings," Hillary Clinton said at event honoring the late New York Times Robin Toner Monday night in Washington. "A new grandchild, another new hairstyle, a new e-mail account. The relationship with the press. So here goes: no more secrecy. No more zone of privacy. After all, what good did that do me?

Clinton made clear that her change of heart was decidedly tongue in cheek, adding: "Before I go any further, look under your chair, youll find a simple non-disclosure agreement my attorneys drew up. Old habits last."

ZING!

Here's the thing: Clinton shouldn't be joking. She badly needs a new relationship with the press after a 2008 campaign that was marked by the remarkably uncivil daily interactions between her press team and the reporters tasked with covering the campaign. (I am far from blameless in that as a participant in plenty of skirmishes that, in retrospect, were so tiny and meaningless as to not make much of a difference in even the short term.)

And, in her hires for the not-yet-announced-but-come-on-everyone-knows-she's-doing-it presidential campaign there does seem to be an acknowledgment that the press shop needs an entirely different approach. As Peter Nicholas wrote recently in the Wall Street Journal:

Mrs. Clintons new campaign is shaping up to be a hybrid of longtime Clinton and Obama political operatives. Tensions are inevitable.But Mrs. Clinton seems to want some sort of rapprochement with the press.

Three of the people she has recently tapped for key spots in her media operation suggest as much.All have strong ties to the press corps; none is known for a combative approach to the media.

He's exactly right. Jennifer Palmieri, who is expected to be the communications director, has a long history with the national media -- from her time working for John Edwards' presidential bid to her service as a senior press person in the Obama White House. Brian Fallon, expected to be the national press secretary, spent time on Capitol Hill with the irrepressible Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) before going to head press operations at the Justice Department. And Jesse Ferguson, who is expected to play a major role in the Clinton 2016 press shop, comes out of the world of House Democratic politics and is known -- by me and lots of other reporters -- for his reasonableness.

Those hires will likely make some difference in how the Clinton campaign deals with the media. But, the key question is not really the philosophy of the people Clinton has hired when it comes to dealing with the media. It's whether she (and her husband) have actually changed their mind in any meaningful way about their approach to the press.

More here:
Hillary Clinton promised a new relationship with the media. She was kidding.

The "Ready-For-Action Figure" sports a blue pantsuit and beige heels. The Kickstarter campaign set up by its Brooklyn-based designers has already reached its $15,000 fundraising goal.

And they've promised to make a version in a pink pantsuit as well if they hit $60,000.

The superhero version of Clinton "can solve any international crisis with a single joke, (is) strong enough to wrestle Russian bears, yet cool enough to diffuse any Korean missile," quips the promotional video.

"Smart, bold, and stylish -- the world has never seen a woman quite like this."

The action figure was designed by a small studio called FCTRY, which also created an Obama action figure in 2008.

The firm's crowdfunding campaign still has 14 day left, but the money raised so far is enough to get manufacturing started, according to FCTRY, which is taking donations as small as $1.

For every donor, they'll send a postcard to Clinton encouraging her to run for president. Anyone who gives $15 gets an action figure and for $40, donors will also get a "Run Hillary. Run" t-shirt.

Related: The Ted Cruz economy: Reality-checking his talking points

The makers of the action figure, who clearly hope that Clinton will become the first woman president, stress that she's not a "doll" like Barbie, which can send the wrong message to girls.

Hillary Clinton is a "positive female role model," they write.

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Hillary's action figure is ready to run

TIME Politics Hillary Clinton Yana Paskova—Getty Images Former United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks to the media after keynoting a Women's Empowerment Event at the United Nations on March 10, 2015 in New York City.

Hillary Clinton does not face a serious primary challenger for the Democratic nomination in 2016, but that isnt stopping some liberals from putting together the trappings for one.

The handful of Democrats who have expressed interest in challenging Clinton Sen. Bernie Sanders, former Maryland Gov. Martin OMalley and former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb are all polling double digits behind her and raising minimal funds. None have the kind of name recognition that could seriously threaten her inevitable march to the nomination.

But thats not stopping some on the left from trying their hand at the classic primary squeeze play of raising issues in the primary in an effort to persuade her to adopt them.

Over the weekend, during his first foray into the early caucus state of Iowa, OMalley called for tougher sanctions on Wall Street and too-big-to-fail banks, and for reinstating Glass-Steagall, a law that separated commercial and investment banking which was repealed in 1999. He also called for strongly supporting the long-embattled Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which was passed in 2010 response to the financial crisis.

Today, most Republicans in Congress are hell-bent on disassembling the Dodd-Frank Act, OMalleys PAC, OSay Can You See, wrote in a press release Monday, along with a link to a petition. And too many Democrats have been complicit in the backslide toward less regulation.

OMalleys populist swing came the same weekend that the Boston Globe featured a splashy package begging Massachusetts Senator and liberal hero Elizabeth Warren to run for president. Democrats need Elizabeth Warrens Voice in the 2016 presidential race, the editorial board urged. (The idea is not totally out of left field, as it were. Though Warren has said repeatedly that she is not running for president, she has been somewhat cagey about it. She studiously uses the present tense I am not running for president and has yet to endorse a Clinton candidacy.)

This week, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee also re-upped its ongoing effort to motivate liberals to challenge Clintons famously Wall Street-friendly economic positions. Liberals should join New Hampshire and Iowa leaders in urging candidates to campaign on big, bold, economic populist ideas, the PCCC urged. The more momentum we get, the more Hillary Clinton and others will take notice.

So whats all this clamoring, calling-to-arms actually add up to?

Liberal optimists argue that its the only thing that will help scooch Clinton to the left at a time when shes already planning her general election strategy. They believe that Clinton will adopt some of their positions in order to win the full-throated endorsement of key liberals such as Warren who shell need to rally the base in 2016.

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Round 1: Hillary Clinton vs. Liberal Ideas

Hillary Rodham Clinton this week gave observers a glimpse of some of her talking points in her expected campaign for the 2016 presidency. At an event Monday organized by the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, she discussed income inequality and a need to redevelop Americas cities.

"We need to think hard about what we're going to do now that people are moving back into and staying in cities to make sure that our cities are not just places of economic prosperity and job creation on average," Mrs. Clinton said, the Associated Press reported. "But do it in a way that lifts everybody up to deal with the overriding issues of inequality and lack of mobility.

Clinton has been criticized for maintaining strong ties with the New York financial sector and for not addressing the economic problems plaguing many Americans. On Sunday, a piece by The Boston Globe editorial board critiqued her willingness to tackle issues of economic inequality.

Nothing about her record suggests much gumption for financial reform or tackling the deeply entrenched economic problems that increasingly threaten the American dream, the Globe asserted.

Urban America is important for many progressive politicians, who often rely on the support of metropolitan voters for their election victories. Clinton is expected to announce a presidential campaign next month, and as April draws nearer, some observers say she will be focusing more heavily on these issues.

Her appearance at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, represented another building block for her expected campaign, wrote Laura Meckler for The Wall Street Journal.

In her seven-minute speech, Clinton called for more partnerships between the private and public sectors and policies to improve social mobility.

"A lot of our cities truly are divided, she said according to The Wall Street Journal. They have some of the most dynamic, well-educated, affluent people in the world, and people who are trapped in generational poverty.

Clinton also used the event on Monday to discuss the work of the Clinton Global Initiative, part of the Clinton family foundation. The foundation has come under fire recently after reports emerged that it accepted funding from foreigners with connections to their governments while Mrs. Clinton was secretary of State.

She mentioned the CGI program Job One, which works with companies to find employment for young people who have never had jobs, and a partnership with unions to encourage energy retrofits.

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Why Hillary Clinton is making income inequality a theme of her likely campaign (+video)