By Dan        Balz Chief        correspondent November 22        at 11:36 AM                       
    NEW YORK  It was all Hillary    Clinton, all day, Friday in New York, a day that helped    crystallize how much already has been done for the prospective    presidential candidate by others and, more importantly, what    she has yet to do for herself.  
    The events included a day-long session for the donors to Ready    for Hillary, the political action committee founded in early    2013 to help encourage Clinton to run for president. She did    not appear at the event, but many of the Clinton clique were    there.  
    In the evening, it was the former secretary of state herself in    the limelight at a black-tie gala hosted by the New-York    Historical Society Museum & Library, where she was given    the History Makers award.  
    Ready for Hillary started on a shoestring, dismissed by some in    Clinton world as a quixotic enterprise. It has grown into    something far more important and valuable to a potential    candidate whose top-down campaign in 2008 was one (but not the    only) factor that led to her defeat to Barack Obama in the    contest for the Democratic nomination.  
    Because of the work of Ready for Hillary, if Clinton decides to    run for president, she will instantly have access to what the    groups leaders say is a list of roughly 3 million people who    have signed up as supporters, volunteers, donors or all of the    above. Ready for Hillary will shut down if and when Clinton    announces her candidacy. The list cant simply be handed over    to her, but she will easily be able to convert fruits of the    organizations efforts into a Hillary for President ground    army.  
    Many people deserve credit for this. One is Adam Parkhomenko,    the young and tireless co-founder of the group, who has been    looking to help make Clinton president of the United States    since he was in high school and who overcame the doubters with    his energy and a strategic grasp of the techniques and    imperatives of the most modern of campaigns.  
    Another who gets credit is Craig Smith, who has been part of    the Clintons world for more than two decades and whose arrival    at Ready for Hillary signaled to many longtime Clinton    loyalists  and donors  that the organization deserved their    backing, financial and otherwise. About $10 million has been    raised since the founding.  
    Fridays gathering in New York seemed very much like both a    Clinton political family reunion and the    gathering-before-the-storm. In attendance were scores of people    from across the country, many of them instrumental in helping    Bill Clinton become president, some who served him as    president, and all of them now are just as determined to see    Hillary Clinton get to the White House in her own right.  
    The speakers constituted a whos who of Clinton loyalists, from    strategists James Carville and Paul Begala to Agriculture    Secretary Tom Vilsack to former White House deputy chief of    staff Harold Ickes. Equally notable were those from Obamas    political orbit and others who are now part of the Ready for    Hillary operation or any of the other pro-Clinton political    committees and organizations that have been founded in the past    two years.  
Continued here:
Balz: For Democrats, Hillary Clinton just has to say Go. For voters, shell have to say much more.