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Hillary Clinton with author and moderator Cheryl Strayed in New York.(Photo: Craig Ruttle, AP)

SENECA FALLS, N.Y. Theres a very familiar face at the start of the Ludovico Sculpture Trail in this town famous for its place in the history of womens rights. Theres no nameplate or inscription and no mystery. Its Hillary Clinton.

The bust was placed on the trail in 2013, when Clinton had already accomplished more than most people do in three or four lifetimes. Everyone knew, even then, that she would run for president, and right up until late on the night of Nov. 8, 2016, most of us would have predicted any plaque would start with the wordsFirst woman president of the United States.

That is not happening, and its time for closure.

It is easy to feel warm about Hillary Clinton when youre eating at places like Caf XIX (get it?) and stopping to grab a selfie with statues of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Amelia Bloomer.

But the real Hillary Clinton makes sure the warmth doesnt last. While I wandered around Seneca Falls, Clinton was driving a double-decker bus over her party.

She had previously blamed her defeat on James Comey, Russia, fake news, WikiLeaks and too muchmedia focus on her (shockingly sloppy) email arrangements while she was secretary of State. The latest scapegoat isthe Democratic National Committee. When she won the Democratic nomination, she toldKara Swisher and Walt Mossberg last week at a Recode conference, "It was bankrupt, it was on the verge of insolvency, its data was mediocre to poor, nonexistent, wrong."

Not surprisingly, this did notgo down well with Andrew Therriault, the DNCs former director of datascience. And so another feud began, another backflip into the stagnant, poisonouswaters of 2016.

Bust of Hillary Rodham Clinton in Seneca Falls, N.Y.(Photo: Family photo)

You dont have to believe the DNC was a perfect vessel to want to move on. In fact, it always struck me as working well below capacity almost from the moment Barack Obama won the presidency. It was hard to find anyone who thought Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz was doing a bang-up job, and hard to fathom why Obama never replaced her through all those years.

And that was just one of the many unfathomable, tremendously destructive DNC developments. Why was the party so dismissive of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders?Why didn't party functionaries and contractors at every single level go on red alert when the FBI clued them tothe Russia-hacking-WikiLeaks breach? Why on earth did Donna Brazile, the acting chairman after Wasserman Schultz stepped aside, send CNN debate questions to Camp Hillary?

There is blame and blame and blame and blame, from Obama to Clinton, from Comey to Russia, and many more. But why would Clinton choose to relitigate all of this, and now of all moments?We cant miss her if she refuses to be gone.

Now would be the time, after a terrible loss, that most people would retreat from the public stage to regroup, give the countrya respite, emerge later with a plan, a passion, a graceful or at least meaningfulway forward.The best role model for this is former vice president Al Gore.

Jill Lawrence in Seneca Falls, N.Y.(Photo: Family photo)

But that has never been Clintons style. She didnt do it when she left the State Department with a 64% approval rating. She hasnt done it after this devastating election.Instead shes out there talking about why she lost, about the book shes writing about why she lost, about her new organization called Onward Together. Imsorry, but that sounds like a slog. Make America Great Again is fallacious and superficial, but at least it doesn't sound like a march through quicksand to an unspecified goal.

Well be hearing from Clintonaround the clock when her book comesout this fall. If she must be present now, and apparently she must, she should discussthe future not 2016, not problems in the DNC, not sexism, not Russians and Comey and negative press and not even PresidentTrump. Every question about the past should be deflected with, "I'm looking forward, not backward. Let's talk about how more Democrats can win and more women can run."

Whether you love Clinton or really cant stand her, I highly recommend a visit to her bust on the Seneca Falls sculpture trail. Its an experience akin to recentering a map on your smartphone. The fraught present recedes, perspective snaps in, and Clinton takes her place in the tableau of history.

Her last chapter may not yet be written, butany plaque on that bust would be crowded even now: First lady, U.S. senator, U.S. secretary of State, first female presidential nominee of a major political party. Human rights are womens rights and womens rights are human rights. United Nations 4th World Conference on Women, Beijing, 1995.

That is more than enough to put her in the pantheon along with Anthony, Stanton and the rest.

Jill Lawrence is the commentary editor of USA TODAY and author ofThe Art of the Political Deal: How Congress Beat the Odds and Broke Through Gridlock. Follow her on Twitter@JillDLawrence

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Hillary Clinton still stuck in '16 - USA TODAY