Pro-Hillary PAC May Win Obama's Campaign Manager

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The Hillary Clinton 2016 campaign may shape up even sooner than expected. Buzzfeed's Ruby Cramer reports that former Obama campaign manager Jim Messina and longtime Bill Clinton advisor John Podesta are in talks to co-chair Priorities USA, the super PAC that supported Obama's reelection. Cramer notes that "Messina’s presence, in particular, would signal that key Obama loyalists have lined up behind Clinton, and are ready to essentially forgo a primary."

Of course, Messina and Podesta have not commented on these talks. Messina's still the chair of Organizing for Action, the advocacy group that developed out of Obama's 2012 campaign. He was also recently hired by the Conservative Party of the U.K. (which is not as conservative as America's GOP). Priorities USA leadership has spent several months "deciding how best to re-launch the PAC, orienting it behind Clinton ahead of the 2016 race," Cramer writes.

One thing that could keep Messina from jumping on board right away? Good ol' Joe Biden. According to Cramer's sources, "some worry [Biden] would view Messina’s move to a pro-Clinton venture as a slight." To say nothing of the revelation that he considered dumping Biden for Hillary in the 2012 campaign. 

To be clear, Hillary Clinton has not said she's running for president. Her campaign doesn't exist yet. But groups like Priorities USA and Ready for Hillary are organizing in anticipation that she will —so they can build a massive operation that's ready to go the day she declares. Both super PACs, these groups can air ads backing a candidate, as long as they don't coordinate. Ready for Hillary met in New York yesterday to talk strategy and has already amassed an email list of more than 1 million supporters. 

So regardless of when (or if) Messina and Podesta sign on to Priorities USA, Hillary's pre-campaign campaign is rolling right along. Cramer reports that Messina and Podesta were invited to speak at the Ready for Hillary conference, but didn't. Podesta did show up to the evening reception. 

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