Watching the Democratic Party play out the politics of relative engagement with Hilary Clinton (relative engagement is when an engagement fits the engager - and nobody else), is like watching a camp fire (where the party is all warmed and huddled) turn into a forest fire (where everybody’s running for their lives). What should be a controlled burn is beginning to burn out of control.

Call it sense of entitlement, foolish pride, passive/aggressive racism, gender entrenchment - whatever, allowing Hilary Clinton to make up rules as she goes and buy time with farfetched rationalizations is hurting the Democratic Party. Not since the Jimmy Carter-Ted Kennedy grudge sunk the party in 1980, has such a personality-driven engagement held the party hostage. And trust me, the Democratic Party is being held hostage by its most dynamic personality, Ex-President, Bill Clinton, trying to broker the presidency for his wife. Like a hen-pecked husband on lockdown, Bill is a full time surrogate on the Hillary campaign and she hopes to ride him across the finish line like a race horse down the stretch of the Kentucky Derby. The Comeback Kid is hoping for one last comeback. It’s not there.

Clinton surrogate, Geraldine Ferraro, caused a major controversy by saying Barack Obama wouldn’t be winning if he weren’t black. Well, if Hillary’s (second) last name wasn’t Clinton (notice she’s dropped Rodham, after using it all through her White House years and in her Senate years), this campaign would have been over. The Democratic Party set its rules and its party unity protocols were clearly established as the ultimate goal was (because “is” as the goal is quickly becoming a thing of the past) to get a Democrat in the White House this November. But you know the Clintons make up stuff as they go. Bill tried to make the American public think smoking dope wasn’t smoking dope (“I smoked but I didn’t inhale”) and sex wasn’t sex (“Exactly what is sex?” or “oral sex is not really sex”). Now he wants you to think his wife hasn’t lost this campaign. Hillary wants to seat Florida and Michigan, and wants the public to believe that Pennsylvania will save her candidacy. This, after losing poll after poll, state after state, and superdelegate after superdelegate.

If you lined up all the “if” scenarios, this “Billary” candidacy has created since the February 5th Super Tuesday scheduled “it’s inevitable” coronation of Hillary Clinton, you would have a line of "ifs" from Los Angeles to New Hampshire. The only real true “if” in this whole nomination scenario is that if the Democrats don’t handle this Hillary stall campaign any better than they have, they will lose in November - and if they can’t win this election, the Democratic Party really should call it “quits”-as in ceasing to call themselves a political party.

The only thing that’s inevitable in this Democratic Party primary process is that Hillary is going to lose this nomination. Pennsylvania (or any other state) is not going to save Rodham-Clinton this year. President Clinton’s charisma and popular rhetoric is not going to save his wife this year. As proven in recent polls, pulling skeletons out of Obama surrogates’ closets is not going to save Hillary’s candidacy this year. Even Hillary Clinton is not prepared to save herself from herself, as it is becoming more increasing obvious that her candidacy is not about the Democratic Party, it’s about her - either forcing the party to accept her as the party’s nominee or positioning herself for 2012 after she causes the party to lose in 2008 (her scorched earth strategy).

This reminds you of the type of reaction you get when you tell the wrong “psycho chick” that you just want to be friends. They don’t handle rejection really well. Now, I’m not trying to say that Hillary is a psycho chick, but…how many different ways can you tell this woman, “Hey girl, you ain’t the one!” Well, it’s been 29 different ways (states she’s lost) so far. Only for her to turn around and say, “Well, the big states love me so you should love me too, and I’m not taking no for an answer.” Clearly, Hillary Clinton is not interested in being the Democratic Party’s friend. It’s either going to be her, or nobody - if she has her way. And the Democratic Party is tolerating this stalker behavior. If Hillary Clinton causes the Democratic Party to lose this election, 2012 shouldn’t even be a consideration. In fact, there is no way the Democrats should lose this election.

In a year when we have an unpopular war, an unpopular President (with the lowest approval rating since Nixon became tied to Watergate), a weak economy bordering on collapse (depression) and a weak Republican opponent (a maverick Republican that not even his party likes), the Democrats should be ready to have the Presidency fall into their lap. But they are not. In fact, they are demonstrating the very same behavior that caused them to implode in 1988. The Democrats are acting like the same party that snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in 2000. Instead of acting like the party of “new ideas,” they’re acting like the party of stalled ideas. Democrats are quick to become enamored of an idea, but slow to implement one. The saying is that Democrats fall in love while Republicans fall in line. It has obviously proven true, as we’ve watched the Republicans clear their field and surround John McCain while they attempt to remake a fiscal moderate-social liberal into a right-winged socially and fiscally conservative war-hawk (“Neo-Con”). Meanwhile, the Democrats have fallen in love with Barack Obama while they can’t seem to develop a coherent platform and they can’t seem to get Hillary Clinton to play by the party’s rules. The Clintons have run the party for so long (the last 16 years), they think it’s theirs. How can the Democrats take back the White House, if they can’t even take back their own party?

The Democrats have to stop this highjacking of the party. Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi and some of the party’s prestige players (Leahy and others) are tired of playing “footsie” with Hillary - and have said so. The party needs to move on. She either respects the party or she doesn’t and the party is about to shoot itself in both feet fooling around - playing nice to the Clintons. The Democratic Party is being viewed as the party without the backbone to sit one woman down. No wonder the public questions what the party will do in Iraq, if given the chance. All I know is, if the Democrats can’t win this election, they need to give being a political party. We’d have a better chance to win as independents, than fooling with a party being held hostage, and stuck on stupid.

BlackCommentator.com Columnist Dr. Anthony Asadullah Samad is a national columnist, managing director of the Urban Issues Forum and author of the new book, Saving The Race: Empowerment Through Wisdom. His Website is AnthonySamad.com. Click here to contact Dr. Samad.

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