Hillary Clinton Hasn't Driven a Car Since 1996

By Nate Jones

UPDATED 01/29/2014 at 07:35 PM EST • Originally published 01/29/2014 at 07:35 PM EST

Hillary Clinton attends the 2013 Greenbuild Conference in Philadelphia on Nov. 21, 2013

Bill McCay/WireImage

Our leaders spend so much time trying to seem folksy and down-to-earth that it's easy to forget that, in many ways, their lives are nothing like ours. Case in point: Hillary Clinton's recent admission that she hasn't driven a car in 18 years.

As the former First-Lady-turned-Secretary-of-State explained at a car dealers' conference on Monday: "One of the regrets I have about my public life is that I can't drive anymore."

"My husband thinks that's a blessing, but he's the one who should talk," she added.

Clinton's revelation isn't shocking among American politicians. It is widely assumed that Barack Obama has not driven himself since a 2010 photo-op with a Chevy Volt (though he has suggested he'll buy the hybrid once his term in office is up).

Other countries have no such prohibitions on their heads of state; Queen Elizabeth II is often seen tooling around her Scottish estate in a Range Rover.

Despite her lack of first-hand driving experience, Clinton has been eager to dispute the assumption she is unfamiliar with the price of gas, as a similar gaffe may have helped her husband win the presidency in 1992 – at a campaign stop during the 2008 campaign, she made a show of visiting a gas station in Indiana to discuss how her planned energy policies would help those hurting at the pump.

FYI: If Clinton runs for president in 2016, there will be voters who were literally not alive yet the last time she was behind the wheel.

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