My must read of the day is "Hillary Clinton Begins to Move Away From Obama Ahead of 2016," in the Wall Street Journal:
Hillary Clinton has begun distancing herself from President Barack Obama, suggesting that she would do more to woo Republicans and take a more assertive stance toward global crises, while sounding more downbeat than her former boss about the U.S. economic recovery. [...]
Mrs. Clinton hasn't repudiated Mr. Obama, who made her secretary of state in his first term, and comments aimed at highlighting her differences with Mr. Obama are often implied rather than stated bluntly.
But in tone and substance, the presumed presidential candidate has made clear in recent public appearances that she wouldn't be running for a de facto third Obama term in the White House. The strategy could help Mrs. Clinton tackle one of her biggest challenges if she decides to run: how to separate herself from Mr. Obama without alienating Democrats and Obama supporters.
The implication here is that Clinton must cautiously show a distinction between her theoretical presidency and Obama's current one without alienating her current supporters.
Certainly, Clinton must do that. No one wants to be in lock step with a president who was just voted the worst president since WWII and has an approval rating of 42 percent. Hillary Clinton, however, has a cult-like following. She can do little wrong in the eyes of her loyalists and most seem to consider Clinton as a distinct entity, separate even from the Democratic Party.
Clinton doesn’t need to be pensive about separating herself from the administration and isolating her supporters, but separating herself from it and turning off potential supporters.
It is difficult to convince independents, and even opponents, that she is not a continuation of this administration when she was actually a part of it.
No matter what she does, Clinton cannot be completely separated from this administration's foreign policy stances because for four years she played an active role in orchestrating them. She has a tight rope to walk, and if she isn't careful too much distancing could easily come off as an insincere political tactic. That might not turn her supporters against her, but it certainly won't create many new ones.