I saw Jimmy Carter, now 89, hold an audience spellbound last month talking with joyful satisfaction about his one-dollar-toilets-for-women initiative in Ethiopia. Why had I so misunderstood this guy when he was in office? This twinkling crusader for things no one else gives a toss about was one of the biggest hits of our three-day event. Who knew, by the way, that The Carter Center has wiped out guinea worm just about everywhere in Africa but South Sudan? (For a truly horrendous description of what a three-foot guinea worm does to you as it burrows out of the first orifice it can find in the human anatomy like the Alien, check out his new book.)

Now that Chelsea is pregnant, and life for Hillary can get so deeply familial and pleasant, she can have her glory-filled post-presidency now, without actually having to deal with the miseries of the office itself. She is as adored as any ex-president already, she is making a ton of money, and she can expand the real passion of her life, her global mission to promote women’s rights, education, and political participation. The spotlight follows her and always will. If she becomes president at 68 it will be another press onslaught from hell and such a hog-tied two terms, only the festive delights of hip replacement surgery will await her by the time she gets out. Leave the presidency to the people who don’t know what she knows all too well: what it’s really like.