Bill and Hillary Clinton want George W. Bush to be reelected at the expense of the entire Democratic Party. Which is just fine with me.

The first sign of this is the Clintons’ abject refusal to completely dispel rumors that Hillary will not run for president in 2004. With comments like “You never know what might happen.” (Hillary Clinton on London TV), her half-hearted denials just don’t hold that much water.

As if nine candidates in the Democratic primary aren’t enough already, the Clintons have pushed four-star general Wesley “I’ve been dying to get back to Iowa!” Clark into the mix too. The general has skyrocketed into first place with 22 percent of the vote according to Monday’s CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll. Dean follows at 13 percent with Lieberman, Kerry and Gephardt at 10 or 11 percent each.

This means that Clark’s support is across the board, and he’s not stealing any one candidate’s votes – Howard Dean claims that his supporters “are not transferable” notwithstanding. What could be more divisive than that? Clark’s candidacy adds even more strife to the primary, making Bush look better and better by comparison. The president may not be perfect, but at least he’s not flicking the ears of the other nine most prominent members of the Republican Party.

Not that Bill is helping matters any, practically campaigning for himself. “I think since people are living much longer . the 22nd Amendment should probably be modified to say two consecutive terms instead of two terms for a lifetime,” the ex-president said over the summer. Since people are living longer? I guess the Diet Cokes must be canceling out all those Big acs.

As we all know, the ego of the Clintons is insatiable. In their eyes, the two most important people in the world are none other than themselves. We all know that Hillary wants to run for president in 2008 – if Bill fails to repeal the 22nd Amendment in the meantime – so why is she still wishy-washy about running this year? Because she needs a Bush reelection so that she does not face a primary battle against an incumbent Democratic president in 2008.

TradeSports.com (the Web site on which you could, among many other things, bet on the timely demise of Saddam Hussein) still lists Hillary as only an 8-to-1 underdog to win the Democratic primary. Why isn’t she a 1,000,000-to-1 underdog? I thought she said she wasn’t running! Because once again, the disinformation campaign of the Clintons is working; people cannot stop speculating whether or not Hillary will indeed enter this race.

Hillary has absolutely no chance to win an election against Bush, and she knows that. She’s willing to put her political future ahead of the entire Democratic Party, and no one seems to be able, willing, or smart enough to stop her. Don’t look at Bill, he’s too busy running around California wondering what would happen “If kids recalled their parents every time they made a hard choice.” Gee Bill, you want to change the California Constitution, too?

Not to worry, though. Bush’s reelection chances are growing more and more every day the primary circus goes on, and no one in the Midwest or South is voting for Kerry or Dean anyway. Negative primary ads will inevitably fill the airwaves, and the American voter is not going to put up with hearing about how bad everything is for much longer.

Perhaps if one of the Dems could come up with some ideas on how to improve our country, people might start paying attention. But as of Labor Day, only one-third of voters surveyed could name at least one Democratic candidate for president. That’s pretty sad, considering a closely split two-thirds of the country has opinion enough to give my Senator Daschle (D-S.D.) either a favorable or unfavorable rating.

Once again, the Democratic Party is splintering, but this time, one of its own is holding the axe. Hillary knows exactly what she’s doing, and the left is delightfully oblivious.

Eric Rodawig is a freshman in the College.