Dean To Democratic Superdelegates: Enough Is Enough (By July 1st)
March 28th, 2008 by JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has put a proposed deadline on the day when Superdelegates should make their decisions and get behind one of the party’s two bitterly warring Presidential candidate wannabes: make your decision by July 1st:
A potential game-changer from CBS News and “The Early Show.” Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean says he wants superdelegates to make a decision by JULY 1 — the most specific he has been in his effort to prod the party to decide between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton before the Democratic National Convention in late August.
Harry Smith asked if after the nominating contests end with the South Dakota and Montana primaries on June 3, “Do you want the superdelegates to have some sort of vote immediately so that you’ll know months in advance of the convention what the outcome is?”
Dean replied: “Well, I think the superdelegates have already been weighing in. I think that there’s 800 of them and 450 of them have already said who they’re for. I’d like the other 350 to say who they’re at some point between now and the first of July so we don’t have to take this into the convention.”
An aide explains that July 1 is not a drop-dead deadline: “The point is before the convention, ideally in June.”
So it is NOT a drop-dead deadline: they can reach the decision sooner. Which means after July 1st Dean considers it either drop dead or I’ll-wish-you-drop-dead.
And, indeed, if the increasingly divisive battle goes all the way to the elections there are growing fears that the Democrats could drop dead at the ballot box in November when a very much alive and smiling Senator John McCain could win a term that let’s the GOP keep the White House for another four (or eight) years.
Why the sense of urgency?
For one thing, there are polls that indicate roughly 20 percent of the supporters of Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton would vote for McCain if their candidate doesn’t get the nomination. Feelings — and divisions — are increasingly intense.
And then there’s the fact that McCain is now skating around the world, raising money, mending his fences with conservatives and being photographed and video-ed in many settings that make him look Presidential and more forward-looking that the claw-’em-up contest now drawing blood on the Democratic side.
Dean has come under increasing criticism for not taking a firm stand in trying to bring the contest to an end. But CAN he?
In the end, it’s up to Obama or Clinton to throw in the towel.
And there are no signs that either or them plan to throw in the towel.
They’re too busy throwing towels at each other.
Cartoon by Daryl Cagle, MSNBC.com
This entry was posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 1:09 pm and is filed under Newsweek Blogitics, Primaries, Conventions, Superdelegates, Democratic Party, Elections, 2008 Elections, Democrats, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Politics. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
