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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, at the confirmation hearing for then-Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts January 24, 2013 in Washington, DC. Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hosted Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, for a meeting at her Washington home in December, theNew York Times reported Tuesday.

The two powerful women met in private without aides in what was described to the Times as a "cordial and productive" meeting. Amid reports Clinton has begun to bring on staff for a potential presidential campaign, the former Secretary of State did not ask Warren to consider endorsing her if she runs for president.

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Warren has repeatedly denied interest in running for president in 2016, yet she remains a powerful force in the Democratic Party. She has come to represent a more populist branch of the party, recently fighting to remove reforms that would have weakened Wall Street regulations in a spending bill that passed Congress last December. People in her inner circle have suggested to the Times that she would push Clinton to make income inequality and keeping a check on large financial firms important parts of her platform.

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Clinton, for her part, was once more in tune with the liberal wing of the party that has fallen in love with Warren, but has been accused of getting too close to Wall Street firms in recent years, in part because she has spent the two years since she left the State Department speaking to such groups for handsome fees.

The Times suggested the meeting was not only a good way for two relatively unfamiliar people to get to know each other better, but also for Clinton to try to ensure that Warren offers any opinions about Clinton's campaign or policies privately rather than publicly.

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Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren met in December

The 2016 campaign has acquired an unexpected story line in its early stages: All Madam Presidents Men.

As Hillary Clinton begins to staff her nascent presidential campaign, a paradox has emerged. When she ran in 2008, she played down her potential to make history as the first woman to be president, but her campaign was run by a woman and dominated at the top levels by women. This time, Clinton is properly emphasizing her path-breaking role, but shes relying on the old-boy network in large part by taking over President Obamas heavily male campaign apparatus.

Her campaign chairman: John Podesta. Her campaign manager: Robby Mook. Her chief strategist: Joel Benenson. Her pollsters: Benenson, John Anzalone and David Binder. Her top media guy: Jim Margolis. John, Robby, Joel, John, David and Jim join former Obama hands such as Jim, Jeremy and Mitch, who have already been boosting Clintons candidacy in the super PAC world.

This is quite a departure from Clintons run eight years ago, when a Huffington Post study found that eight of her 14 senior staffers and 12 of her 20 highest-paid staffers were women (including campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle, who was later replaced by Maggie Williams, and chief media strategist Mandy Grunwald). By contrast, only three of Obamas top 12 staffers were women, and in less important roles.

This surely wasnt Clintons intent, but her decision to re-brand Obamas frat house as her own puts out a message quite at odds with her candidacy: that women cant run a presidential campaign. Will Hillary 16 Be a White Dude Fest? the Daily Beast asked last month.

Clinton world has since done some damage control, letting it be known that Jennifer Palmieri would run the campaigns communications operation and that Grunwald would have a role. And some of the grumbling about Clintons early hires isnt fair: Huma Abedin, Cheryl Mills and Williams, though they dont (yet) have official roles, are highly influential members of Clintons inner circle. From what Ive heard, Clinton lieutenants were surprised by the reaction to the early slate of male hires. They say they blundered in putting out the names of several men at once and were not making a fundamental shift from the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pantsuit to the Obama towel snappers.

Even so, this suggests a tone deafness reminiscent of Obamas handling of the issue. A 2009 basketball game at the White House in which only men played became a symbol of an administration that excluded women from top positions. The common response that senior adviser Valerie Jarrett has broad influence behind the scenes is similar to the explanation of the role of women in Clintons emerging campaign.

There is one very good reason for Clinton simply to put her name on the door of Obamas campaign operation: His advisers clearly know how to win elections. Clintons 2008 run was famous for its dysfunction and internal feuding.

But its just as possible that merging Obamas advisers with her loyalists will simply produce more squabbling. Many of the officials now poised to work for Clinton spoke of her with undisguised contempt eight years ago. Have they suddenly been converted? Or are they working for Clinton to further their own ambitions and businesses while privately holding the views that are still being voiced by former top Obama strategist David Axelrod? Axelrod, who is not working for Clinton, has been critical of Clinton in his new book, in which he describes her as an opportunist and not a healing figure and too much a part of the system in Washington ever to change it.

An early hint of squabbles between Obama and Clinton loyalists came last week, when Clinton ally David Brock accused former Obama adviser Jim Messinas pro-Clinton super PAC, Priorities USA Action, of planting negative stories about him. Brock resigned from the Priorities USA board.

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Milbank: Hillary Clinton rebrands Obamas frat house as her own

Paul, the libertarian-leaning senator from Kentucky, finds himself within the margin of error in hypothetical head-to-head contests against Clinton in Colorado and Virginia, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday. The former secretary of state is considered the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, though neither Clinton nor Paul have formally launched a campaign.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the leading GOP establishment prospect, also ties Clinton in Virginia and social conservative favorite former Gov. Mike Huckabee comes within three points of Clinton's 44 percent edge.

Wisconsin's Gov. Scott Walker, who is having a bump in polling following a positively received Iowa speech last month, also pulls a virtual tie against Clinton in Colorado.

None of the potential Republican candidates included in the Quinnipiac survey come close to matching Clinton's support in the crucial state of Iowa where Bush, Huckabee, Paul, Walker and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie all face 7- to 10-point deficits against Clinton.

Christie is struggling the most of the five Republican candidates, according to the poll, trailing Clinton by at least five points in each of the three states.

President Barack Obama beat the Republican nominee in all three states in both 2008 and 2012, though the wins were among Obama's tightest margins.

As in past polls, Bush continues to face the burden of his family name: about 4-in-10 Colorado voters and 35 percent of voters in Iowa and Virginia said they were less likely to support Bush because his brother and father have both been president.

Clinton's family ties aren't as much of an issue for her, with less than a quarter of voters in each of the three states less likely to vote for her because Clinton's husband, Bill, was president.

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Poll: Rand Paul tied with Hillary Clinton in two swing states

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch)Jeb Bush may be Republicans overall favorite to take on Hillary Clinton in 2016, but hes got competition from Sen. Rand Paul in two battleground states that could help decide the next presidential election.

Republican Paul and Democrat Clinton, who havent formally declared their candidacies, need to win their parties nominations to compete anywhere. But right now, theyre in dead heats in voter preference surveys of potential presidential candidates in Colorado and Virginia, Quinnipiac University surveys show.

In Colorado, 43% of respondents said theyd choose former Secretary of State Clinton in a hypothetical face-off with Paul, a senator from Kentucky. Paulwho is pushing legislation to audit the Federal Reservegets 41% in that state. The polls margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points, making the potential contest a virtual tie.

Its a similar story in Virginia. Among voters there, Paul draws 42% to Clintons 44%, again within the margin of error.

President Barack Obama won both states in 2008 and 2012, but by smaller margins in 2012.

The polls highlight Pauls appeal in a pair of important swing states. But Paul is currently facing a higher bar for his partys nomination than Clinton is for hers. The latest RealClearPolitics average of polls shows former Florida Gov. Bush comfortably leading other candidates for the Republican nomination. Bush has not declared he will run, but is expected to.

Paul is reportedly eyeing April 7 as the day he will announce his plans.

Bush ties Clinton in Quinnipiacs Virginia poll, at 42%. But she would beat him handily in Colorado, where she has an eight-point lead over the son of former President George H.W. Bush and brother of former President George W. Bush.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is in a virtual tie with Clinton in Colorado, but runs five points behind in Virginia.

Quinnipiac also polled residents of Iowa, where Clinton draws strong support relative to all Republican candidates. In Iowa, another swing state, the Republican contenders trail Clinton by seven to 10 points.

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Capitol Report: Rand Paul, Hillary Clinton neck and neck in two swing-state polls

A short two-mile drive northwest from the White Houseencircled by the embassies of the United Kingdom, Bolivia, Brazil, Italy, Denmark, and New ZealandHillary Clinton invited Senator Elizabeth Warren to her home for a private, one-on-one meeting in December, reported the New York Times on Tuesday.

Clinton, who has all but announced her 2016 presidential candidacy, met with the Massachusetts senator at her brick, colonial-style home in Washington in an effort to cultivate the increasingly influential senator and leader of the partys economic populist movement, according to the Times.

Clinton did not ask for an endorsement from Warren, but instead solicited policy ideas and suggestions. Though the two met without aides, the Times reported a Democrat briefed on the meeting called it cordial and productive.

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Though the former secretary of state, U.S senator and First Lady is the current frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for president, many progressives have clamored for Warren to throw her hat in the 2016 ring, viewing Clinton as too hawkish on foreign policy and cosy with Wall Street.

Warren, however, has repeatedly insisted that she is not running and her meeting with Clinton signals the building of a relationship, said the Times, as Clinton works on her economic platform.

During the 2014 elections, Warren campaigned for Democratic candidates in six states, touting her liberal brand of economic populism. Liberal movements, such as Ready for Warren and MoveOn.orgs Run Warren Run, have sprouted up across the country, opening offices in Iowa and New Hampshire. According to Real Clear Politicss most recent polling data, about 11 percent of Democrats support Warren for president in 2016. Clinton garners 60 percent support.

If anything, besides Clintons need to appease the more liberal members of the Democratic party, their December meeting likely consolidates the fact Warren wont run against Clinton in 2016, and that another liberal alternative will. The self-described independent socialist U.S. Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, has very publicly considered running for the Democratic nomination if there is no other liberal alternative.

Meanwhile, Warren will use her new leadership position as strategic policy advisor for the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee to exact her influence. And the road from Clintons northwest Washington home to the White House appears to be clear of at least one liberal challenger.

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Report: Elizabeth Warren Secretly Met With Hillary Clinton