Hillary for New York mayor? I don’t think so.

Will Hillary Clinton run for mayor of New York in November?

Nah. It wouldn’t make sense. The woman will turn 70 this year. She just suffered one of the most humiliating defeats in U.S. presidential history. She’s been a senator, secretary of state, first lady … what possible attraction could there be to risk what’s left of her name and reputation seeking a puny job like mayor, even if it’s mayor of the country’s most glittering city, its cultural mecca, with a budget and population bigger than most states?

She wants to be left alone. Recent public sightings have mainly been in the woods near her home in suburban Westchester County, where she’s been taking a lot of long walks. The pundits and prognosticators of America are almost totally certain she won’t seek the mayoralty … or anything else, ever again, if it requires being elected … yet they can’t stop writing about it.

It’s “unlikely” said The New York Times, but then devoted considerable space to examining the odds and logistics and noting that she hasn’t specifically said she won’t. Times columnist Frank Bruni had great fun pointing out all the aggravation she could cause fellow New Yorker Donald Trump, sending inspectors to check out the smoke detectors at Trump Tower, appointing Alec Baldwin cultural affairs commissioner, acting like a grown-up as he fires off tweets complaining that the Chinese aren’t helping rein in North Korea. Nice!

CNN offered an Idiot’s Guide to New York, just in case Clinton didn’t know the governor, not the mayor, actually controls the subways. The Washington Post suggested the refusal of the story to go away shows that no one ever learns anything, noting that Clinton just got finished being branded the worst candidate of all time for losing to Trump. Reuters agreed the chances are “remote,” but couldn’t help digging away at the entrails anyway.

“There is zero chance that’s going to happen,” it said, quoting an expert in New York politics. Yeah, but what if she did?

There are a number of factors feeding the Hillary fantasy, chief of which may be the “progressive” left’s inability to accept that it got whupped on Nov. 8 and isn’t going to get to live in the White House for at least four years. Meryl Streep reflected the denial that continues to infect Democrat troops when she used her podium at the Golden Globes to bemoan the fact Americans elected Trump even though all the best people in Hollywood warned them again and again not to do it. “I still can’t get it out of my head because it wasn’t in a movie. It was real life,” she said of an incident on the campaign trail that left her devastated and appalled. The camera showed stars shedding tears at her soliloquy; how could Americans have let them down so badly?

But of course they didn’t: Hillary won the popular vote. “Progressives” used that to appeal to the Electoral College to overturn the official result and make Clinton president, but failed. Now there are only days left until Trump formally moves into the Oval Office. Just enough time for one final tantrum.

It wouldn’t be unprecedented for Clinton to seek a lesser office after losing the presidency. Richard Nixon famously ran for governor of California after losing his first White House bid to John F. Kennedy. He lost to Pat Brown, whose son, Jerry, was also elected governor, but later lost the job and went on to serve as mayor of Oakland before staging a comeback. Jerry Brown reportedly considered seeking the Democratic nomination for the 2016 presidential race, but backed off in favour of Clinton.

Clinton Inc. also has an oar to row in the Hillary for Mayor regatta. Another four years of a Democratic presidency would have meant lots of juicy jobs in Washington. The perception that Clinton couldn’t possibly lose, until she lost, left a lot of devastated resume-holders on the outside looking in. Not only do the Republicans control both houses of Congress as well as the White House, but who wants to hire applicants whose political “expertise” helped lose an election even the Russians thought Clinton would win up until election night? The political web site Politico.com estimates 4,000 administration jobs went up in smoke on election night in what it calls Washington’s “Trump recession.” The Clinton Foundation can’t hire all of them, and might even face tougher times itself without Bill or Hillary holding an influential position in the nation’s capital for one of the few periods since 1992.

Barring a run for mayor, some of the legions of Clinton aides might even be forced to seek employment in the private sector. That could hinder their ability to develop policies to right the wrongs or America, which somehow persisted during eight years of the Obama administration. A few might catch on with Sen. Bernie Sanders, if they can get over blaming him for refusing to let Clinton win the nomination unopposed. Others could apply for posts with the current New York mayor, Bill di Blasio, who also happens to be a “progressive” but isn’t very popular, thus the enthusiasm for a Clinton challenge.

Clinton, it’s being said, couldn’t possibly lose if she seeks the job. New Yorkers love her. They overwhelmingly backed her as senator and presidential nominee. It would be a shoo-in. She probably wouldn’t even have to campaign.

Which, given her recent performance as candidate, might be a good idea.