Hillary Clinton tells Jimmy Kimmel she would defeat Bill Clinton

Hillary Rodham Clinton told Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday that if she ran against her husband, she would defeat the former president.

The former first lady said Bill Clinton would run again if he could — but he wouldn’t make it past her.

“If I were going to run against him, would I win? Yea,” she told the comedian.

Clinton — taping amid a whirlwind fundraising tour of California — pondered Kimmel’s question if Bill Clinton would be given the moniker First Dude. And would he pick out the White House China pattern, as is customary for the first lady?

“First dude, first mate, first gentleman? I’m just not sure about it,” Clinton said.

The late-night appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” got off to a cute, if slightly cringe-worthy, start.

Kimmel talked with a panel of four children — two girls and two boys — off stage and posed a question key to Clinton’s campaign: Could a woman serve as president of the United States?

The two boys were blunt: No.

“I think women are not presidents,” one said.

“They are too girly,” said the other, Jayden.

The girls on the panel objected and Kimmel brought in Clinton, who asked the children what they would want from the next president. (Surprise: free food and toys.)

Kimmel ended the bit by asking the boys whether they had changed their minds. Jayden had not.

“We need to have a woman be president and then you would have more evidence to base your decision,” Clinton said, adding that she grew up with two brothers. “I kind of get all of this.”

The former secretary of State came onstage later in the night and threw some mud at the Republican presidential field and pontificated on what a Clinton 2.0 White House might look like.

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Clinton described watching and live-tweeting the GOP debates as a “combination of being appalled and being amused.”

“I just wish they would actually address the real problems that Americans face,” she said. “How do we make college more affordable, how do you get the debt that kids have built up down so they can afford to get on with their lives.”

Kimmel peppered Clinton with personal questions about life on the campaign trail, including when was the last time she got “good and hammered.”

“A long time ago,” she said with a laugh. “I get up too early.”

Kimmel asked whether she felt “at all sorry” for struggling former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, especially when he released a new campaign slogan, “Jeb Can Fix It,” that has been highly mocked.

“Do you guys back at the office die laughing? Is it amusing to you?” he said.

“You know, look,” she said, before smiling and letting out a laugh, “It is really hard to do this.”

Though Clinton said she doesn’t pay “a lot of attention” to what is going on with the GOP field, she did offer Bush a piece of free advice: “Maybe they should put a number on the side of the bus that people could call.”

The interview with Kimmel is the latest late-night appearance for Clinton. She appeared on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” in September and talked about the controversy surrounding her use of a private email server, and appeared on the “Late Show With Stephen Colbert” late last month.

Kimmel did not let Clinton that she picked his show third.

“I want to thank you for doing us last,” he said.

“But you are over here in California so it took me a while to get here,” Clinton said. “The wagon trains are a little slow.”

Clinton’s Kimmel interview comes as she has improved her standing among Democratic primary voters following her marathon testimony before the House Benghazi committee last month, according to a new poll.

The appearance capped off Clinton’s productive two-day trip through the Southland.

She held fundraisers at singer Christina Aguilera’s home as well as at Rob and Michele Reiner’s home.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti became the latest big-city mayor to back Clinton when he announced his endorsement earlier Thursday.

Follow @jpanzar

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