If Republicans can find a fresh, plausible candidate ruthlessly focused on improving middle class lives rather than the Culture Wars, then Mrs Clinton will have to struggle to explain to voters why they should embrace what Republicans will tout as “four more years” (of failure).

Perhaps the twin novelties of being a “first woman president” and a “first First Lady to be president” will be sufficient to get her over the line, but she shouldn’t bet on that.

All this might explain why “Team Hillary” says she has still not made up her mind to run. It was no more than a “a 50-50 proposition” aides told Politico this week, with one “confidant” questioning whether the 66-year-old, soon to be grandmother, wants to spend “the rest of her useful life” locked in a political dog-fight.

Such protestations sound plausible, until you stop to think about it.