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Backers and allies of Hillary Rodham Clinton are increasingly worried about the threat posed by a motley field of Democratic presidential hopefuls who could complicate, or even derail, a Clinton candidacy in 2016 by focusing attention on her weaknesses.

All of the possible challengers are long shots against Clinton and would face a steep climb against the well-known former secretary of state. Many Clinton supporters also say competition would help her by honing her campaigning skills and discouraging the sense of entitlement that damaged her White House bid in 2008.

But each of the emerging challengers also appeals to a constituency within the Democratic Party that Clinton has struggled with in the past. And unlike Clinton who has yet to formulate a clear message for a potential campaign each has distinct issues to build a campaign around.

Jim Webb, the former senator from Virginia who just formed an exploratory committee, is a populist native of Appalachia with potential appeal to working-class and Southern whites. Maryland Gov. Martin OMalley has been laying the groundwork of a campaign for months, focusing his energies on wooing the kind of progressive activists who view Clinton with suspicion. Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.), the gadfly socialist who is also pondering a run in the Democratic primaries, represents the antiwar left still bitter with Clinton over the war in Iraq.

Longtime Clinton family political adviser Harold Ickes said it would be a mistake to dismiss such challengers and the dangers they pose.

[What if] this were 2007 before Obama got into the race and youd said, Do you think Senator Obama is a threat to Hillary? Ickes asked rhetorically. The clear answer, he suggested, is that most would have dismissed Obama as little more than an annoyance.

But the biggest concern among many Clinton acolytes is someone who says she is not running Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), an economic populist who has come to personify a longing among liberal Democrats for someone further to Clintons left.

Warren especially interests and worries Bill Clinton, the unofficial top strategist for his wifes shadow campaign, according to two people who know the former president well. Bill Clinton admires Warrens stemwinder speaking style, and Hillary Clinton echoed parts of Warrens sticking-up-for-the-little guy economic message during midterm speeches this year.

During their one midterm appearance together, Clinton lavished praise on Warren and kept her own remarks brief. Elsewhere, she tried out appeals to working-class and underemployed voters that strategists expect to hear again if Clinton runs.

Many Clinton backers insist that some Democratic opposition is both inevitable and welcome, since it tends to toughen up the eventual winner for the head-to-head contest with a Republican in the general election. Looking at the lessons of Clintons bitter primary contest with Obama in 2008, Democrats also hope that Clinton will be polite, even deferential, to potential opponents such as Webb if she runs.

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Clinton camp says long-shot Democratic challengers still ...