Tech set seems ready for Hillary

Hillary Clinton doesn’t need an official presidential campaign for the tech set to take to the playing field on her behalf.

Democratic data and political operatives have begun building Clinton the fundraising tools, voter lists and social media programs that are essential for a modern-day White House run -- part of a shadow-campaign-in-waiting that seeks to avoid her 2008 technological mishaps while incorporating many of the Barack Obama-inspired advances. Just as important: Technology gurus who spurned Clinton six years ago say that absent the arrival of a lightning-strike, Obama-like candidate, they are ready to help elect the former secretary of state.

It’s a strong sign that bygones are bygones and that Clinton herself will heed calls to run a looser race than she did in 2008, when she was bested in part because of the Obama campaign’s innovation superiority.

“The out-of-touch aura that I think she was suffering from in 2008 isn’t there,” said Laura Olin, Obama’s 2012 social media director.

So far, Clinton’s talking the talk that the tech set wants to hear, from her recent admission to People magazine that she and her husband had “totally binge-watched” Netflix’s “House of Cards” to diving into the weeds of net neutrality, Internet speeds and immigration reform during an April conference with technology executives in San Francisco.

Facebook is also scheduled to broadcast a live interview with Clinton from the 2014 Aspen Ideas Festival. “Even if she’s not technologically adept herself, she’s very comfortable in that world,” said Anne-Marie Slaughter, president of the New America Foundation and Clinton’s former State Department policy planning director. “She’s certainly not a digital native, but I’d say she’s surrounded by lots of them.”