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Hillary Clinton is beginning to put together the pieces for a likely campaign, tapping two top strategists including President Barack Obamas pollster to work with her in the lead-up toward an ultimate decision.

Robby Mook, who worked on Clintons 2008 campaign and is widely expected to be Clintons campaign manager, and Joel Benenson, Obamas pollster who had for months been eyed for a role on her team, have been working with her as she makes a final decision and begins to put together a framework for a staff, according to people close to the former Secretary of State.

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But, if he is hired, Benensons presence in the campaign would mark a major departure for Clinton, who stayed in her comfort zone in her previous campaigns using Mark Penn, the pollster and message guru who had worked for her husband. After she shook up her campaign in the second half of the 2008 primaries, Clinton made Geoff Garin her main pollster.

(Also on POLITICO: Trouble on the home front)

Obamas campaign used Benenson as part of a team of pollsters, an approach Clinton is said to be considering for her next effort. And he would come to her off two successful presidential races.

Mook, who won Obama aides respect for the job her did out-organizing them in a string of states in the 2008 primaries, has been holding meetings with people, according to multiple sources, to begin planning for a likely campaign.

Mook and Benenson did not respond to emails seeking comment. And a Clinton campaign is not expected to be launched for several weeks, possibly as late as mid-spring.

(Also on POLITICO: Gillibrand gears up)

A Clinton aide, asked about the two mens involvement in her current plans, said, She has said that she is seriously considering running for president. Shes casting a wide net, meeting with a variety of experts to discuss the economy and a range of challenges facing American families. And shes using this time to look at what components are necessary to build an inclusive, thoughtful and technically advanced campaign, so that if she decides to run, shell be ready.

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Clinton brings in Mook, Benenson for likely team

Hillary Clinton announces 2008 presidential run archive
Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, 2008 - Wikipedia, the ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Clinton_presidential_campaign,_2008 Clinton announced formatio...

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Iowa Democratic leaders say they are troubled by the prospect that Hillary Clinton could win the states 2016 presidential caucuses without a serious challenge, a view primarily rooted in a desire for a more liberal candidate or at least a robust debate about the partys policies and direction.

Interviews with more than half of Democratic chiefs in Iowas 99 counties show a state party leadership so far reluctant to coalesce behind Clinton. County Democratic officials also voiced qualms about Clintons ability to win a general election and her fundraising ties to Wall Street firms and corporations, which remain a target of liberal ire.

Many county officials said they would like to see senators including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont enter the race, though they were split over whether any could gain traction and overtake Clinton.

My heart wouldnt be in it for Hillary to the extent that it might be if it was a different candidate, said Jennifer Herrington, chair of the Page County Democrats in southwest Iowa. I admire Hillary, shed be a great president, but you know, she isnt my first choice I guess.

Of course, candidates can secure a party nomination without winning Iowa, an idiosyncratic contest that tends to reward candidates with strong local organization and passionate supporters. But as the first-in-the-nation contest, set to take place about a year from now, Iowa draws outsize attention from candidates and the media, and it can set a narrative for a partys entire primary season.

Clinton was also the front-runner at the start of the 2008 presidential campaign, but her big polling lead eroded as the Iowa campaign wore on and caucus participants migrated to the insurgent campaign of then-Sen. Barack Obama, who won in Iowa, and former Sen. John Edwards, who finished in second place. Clinton bounced back with a win in New Hampshire and won several other states before bowing out of the race in early June after Obama built an insurmountable delegate lead.

An expanded version of this story is available at WSJ.com.

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The Wall Street Journal: Top Iowa Democrats slow to rally around Hillary Clinton

David Brock delivering his address at the Clinton School of Public Service in Arkansas. Photo: New York Times

Washington: In a cosy corner of loft-like offices near Union Station, 16 young researchers sit almost shoulder to shoulder, monitoring rows of computer screens.

Their mission: track attacks on Hillary Rodham Clinton, defend her record and dig up any potentially damaging information on her would-be 2016 rivals. Their leader: the one-time Clinton antagonist David Brock.

While Clinton said it was far too early for her to consider a run for the presidency, a sprawling and well-funded operation built by Brock has already established a rapid-response nerve centre for her. Brock is determined to defend and define Clinton's image during her candidacy-in-waiting the kind of task her aides have struggled with since her earliest days in Washington.

Hillary Clinton says it is far too early for her to consider a run for the presidency. Photo: AP

Back then, Brock was a self-described conservative hit man intent on taking down the Clintons. He went to Arkansas in 1993 and wrote an article for a conservative magazine asserting that state troopers had facilitated sexual liaisons for Bill Clinton, then the governor, which led to Paula Jones' 1994 sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton and Brock's elevation in Republican power circles.

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On Tuesday, Brock returned to Arkansas for the first time since that article, this time in the warm embrace of Clinton world. He delivered an address, titled "Countering the Culture of Clinton Hating" to a packed audience at the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock.

Part confession, part cautionary tale, Brock took the stage of the converted railway station adjacent to the William J.Clinton Presidential Centre to talk about his involvement in "The Arkansas Project" in the 1990s, or what he called a conservative-funded "dirt-digging operation into the Clintons' past."

Former US president Bill Clinton. Photo: Reuters

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The man once intent on bringing down Bill Clinton is now helping Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama Top Lists of 2014 #39;s Most Admired Woman and Man
SUBSCRIBE to NewsBreaker #39;s YouTube Channel: http://bit.ly/YgsSEg Clinton has claimed the number one spot 19 times in the last 21 years. Obama has claimed a t...

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