Clinton, With Focus on Human Side, Readies 2016 Bid

When Hillary Clinton announces her candidacy for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination — a move that's "likely only days away" — she will simultaneously be reintroducing herself as approachable, emotionally open and without any presumption of entitlement, CNN reported.

In contrast to her 2008 launch, the 2016 campaign will not start with a focus on the candidate, who has near universal name recognition, but on what ordinary Americans have told her they want from their next president.

There will be fewer extravaganzas and a more determined effort to portray a candidate who does not take her nomination or the quest for the White House for granted.

She will spend more time pressing the flesh, starting in Iowa and New Hampshire. Her handlers will seek out folksier settings so Clinton can hear what voters have to say, CNN reported.

Clinton's campaign manager, Robby Mook, and political consultant Marlon Marshall have laid the groundwork in those two early primary states. The goal, according to CNN, is to show the former first lady, senator and secretary of state as open to the concerns, criticism and complaints of ordinary Americans.

The campaign will shun, based on focus group findings, explicit references to Clinton's historic chance to be the nation's first female president.

"First and foremost people vote for candidates that they like, people who connect with them emotionally," Bonnie Campbell, co-chair of Clinton's 2008 campaign in Iowa, told CNN.

Since she left the State Department, Clinton has been speaking more about her role as a mother and grandmother. She can be expected in the campaign to more tightly align those references to messages that reveal her character.

"Reintroducing her is important because we want to make sure that the opposing party and even other Democrats aren't able to cast the secretary in a light that just isn't her," said South Carolina state Rep. Bakari Sellers, a Clinton backer. "She has an amazing skill to connect with voters and we just have to give her that opportunity," CNN reported.

The task of rebranding Clinton belongs first and foremost to public relations guru Kristina Schake, who has served as first lady Michelle Obama's communications director, The New York Times reported.

So as not to overshadow the candidate, former president Bill Clinton will likely be given an understated role in the campaign.

Arrangements for staff, volunteers, and a headquarters in downtown Brooklyn, New York, are already in place.

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