There Are Rumors Clinton Will Run For Mayor

You can call Hillary Clinton many things, but you can't call her a quitter. According to the New York Daily News, there's a chance — albeit a small one — that Hillary Clinton will run for New York City mayor when Bill de Blasio's term ends at the close of 2017. Clinton, of course, was a New York senator between 2001 and 2009, and lives upstate in Chappaqua.

According to sources who spoke to the Daily News, a handful of top-level Democrats are putting pressure on Clinton to consider entering the mayoral race to succeed de Blasio. Although the New York Times reports that Clinton's answer will almost certainly be "no" — lest we forget, Clinton was reluctant to even enter the 2016 race that saw her lose to president-elect Donald Trump — the 2008 and 2016 presidential candidate hasn't ruled out the possibility just yet.

Make no mistake: Clinton will probably not run for mayor. After the exhausting 18-month stint that was her 2016 run for president (and I'm just talking about my experience of it), Clinton would be well within her rights to devote her time going forward to the Clinton Foundation, her beloved grandchildren, and pushing for women's rights abroad.

But. But. As a devoted former New York politician, not to mention someone who enjoyed considerable support in the general election from New York City voters, it's not a terrible idea. For a start, Clinton deserves better than to see her considerable 30-year legacy distilled into one key moment: Nov. 9, 2016, when she lost the race for president to Donald J. Trump. If Clinton's political swan song were New York City mayor, it sure as hell beats "failed presidential candidate."

In addition, as Frank Bruni points out in the New York Times: "She’d get to shatter a glass ceiling: New York has not yet had a female mayor."

Yes, Clinton wanted to be president; she was prepared to be president, as she famously told Trump in one of their showdown presidential debates. That won't happen. You have to wonder, though: Would there be a more feminist, more resilient, more goddamn Hillary Clinton-esque message than picking herself up, dusting herself off a tad, and saying, "Right, let's do this, New York City"?

Clinton has shown grace even in the face of overwhelming (and unexpected) defeat. To spend four more years not in the White House, but serving the people of New York, should they elect her, would be a graceful and responsible move. Anyone but Hillary Clinton would be licking their wounds from Nov. 9 for weeks, months, years. Hillary Clinton is not just anyone.