As far as the Democratic primaries are concerned, Hillary Clinton is assembling a huge campaign organization to run against … nobody. A presidential contender needs an opponent, a workout, a challenge to be in shape for a general election campaign — especially since Clinton, if she is the Democratic nominee, will face a Republican opponent who has been through a rigorous and toughening nomination battle. Despite that, Democrats appear ready to allow Clinton to stroll to the nomination virtually unopposed.

Faced with no competition within her party, Clinton is reportedly trying to appear tough and ready to rumble. “Her advisers are working hard to fashion ways to make her seem hungrier, scrappier and less like the inheritor of Obama’s mantle,” report the Washington Post’s Dan Balz and Anne Gearan. “A small but expanding cadre of close advisers is looking at ways to keep her in fighting form through a slow and uneventful early campaign season.”