New York Sen. Hillary Clinton enters the 2008 presidential race a household name, with a network of Democratic fundraisers and activists who supported her husband's presidential bids. She knows firsthand the relentless pace of a presidential campaign, is accustomed to news media scrutiny and benefits from eight years in the White House.

But for all her assets, Clinton also faces a unique set of challenges as she begins campaigning for the presidency. And many of those challenges, political observers said, result from her national prominence. Some analysts and Clinton supporters worry that when Clinton visits New Hampshire, a gaggle of reporters and staff will follow, precluding the kind of living room politics that are the primary's hallmark.

"People in New Hampshire don't just want to see you and wave at you from a crowd," said Chris Gallagher, a Concord lawyer and prominent Bill Clinton supporter who plans to support Hillary Clinton. She "has to overcome the kind of rock star status that she has."

Years of media scrutiny and political experience have honed Clinton's sense of discipline. But in New Hampshire - where Sen. John McCain's straight-talking image vaulted him past George Bush in the 2000 Republican primary - candidates must make sure that discipline isn't perceived as excessive caution, analysts said.

"Discipline is one of the key reasons why she's electable," Gallagher said. "But that same discipline can appear to be scripted, or cold or unspontaneous." Clinton's challenge, he said, will be "to maintain that discipline and at the same time let some of that spontaneity - which is very real - come through."

New Hampshire voters will soon have a chance to assess Clinton firsthand. After visiting Iowa next weekend, Clinton will travel to New Hampshire in the next few weeks, said Karen Hicks, Clinton's national field director.

Bill's been there before

In New Hampshire, where his second-place primary finish in 1992 earned him the title "comeback kid," Bill Clinton will prove a formidable asset and a possible detriment, observers said. On the one hand, he "is beloved by New Hampshire Democrats," said Dayton Duncan, a former Democratic presidential adviser and author of a book on the New Hampshire primary. After becoming president, Bill Clinton showered his Granite State supporters with attention, hosting lunches when he traveled through town and inviting them to Washington parties.

And the hours Hillary Clinton logged on the New Hampshire campaign trail with her husband have paid off. "All the lessons that her husband learned in running in 1992 and 1996, she learned with him," Duncan said. Many of Bill Clinton's supporters support her candidacy and have nothing but praise for her campaigning style. In person, they say, she's witty, warm and intelligent.

"She's tireless. She interacts very well with people one-on-one," said Terry Shumaker, who helped run Bill Clinton's campaign and has known Clinton for years. "She has a great ability to remain very calm during a storm."

But Clinton's eight years as first lady make her part of "establishment Washington," and could provide political fodder for her opponents, said Wayne Lesperance, an associate professor of political science at New England College. "The popularity of Barack Obama is directly tied to the fact that he's not a Washington insider."

Clinton's years in the spotlight - and her role as a first lady deeply involved in her husband's political career - have earned her a reputation as a polarizing figure. Shortly after Bill Clinton became president, he gave his wife the task of crafting his administration's universal health insurance plan. The plan, which critics derided as overly complex, eventually fell through, becoming an embarrassment for the new administration.

Polls show that few voters are undecided about their feelings towards Clinton, and many Democrats worry about her ability to win a general election, said Del Ali, president of Research 2000, the Maryland-based nonpartisan polling firm that conducts polls for the Monitor.

But since winning election to the U.S. Senate, Clinton has reached out to her Republican colleagues, an effort that's won her compliments from Republican senators. In November, she overwhelmingly won re-election.

"The fact that she has been able to win over supporters who identify themselves as Republicans or conservatives, I think, shows that she has become a person who is probably less polarizing than she used to be," said Jennifer Donahue, senior adviser for political affairs at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College.

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