First it was Harry. Then it was Nancy. And now Howard is getting in on the act.
Yesterday, Stumper predicted
that the Democratic battle royale between Barack Obama and Hillary
Clinton would end in June, after the final primaries in South
Dakota and Montana. As proof, I cited recent statements from Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
"Superdelegates will choose... before the
convention in August," said Pelosi.
"It will be done," added Reid, smiling serenely.
"As superdelegates
go," concluded yours truly, "[Reid and Pelosi] hold some sway."
But
while congressional leaders are influential and all, the chairman of
the Democratic National Committee--i.e., the organization in charge of
this loony process--has the potential to change (or, um, end) the game.
And now it appears as if that's what Howard Dean (the aforementioned DNC boss) wants to do. First, in an interview yesterday with the Associated Press's Nedra Pickler,
Dean--who said he's worried that "there'll be some nasty fights if
it goes to convention, and people
will walk out"--confessed that he has been "talking to a fairly
significant number of, by and large, nonaligned people about how we
might resolve this." At the time, he refused to go into detail, but
Pickler reported that the plan "likely involves encouraging
superdelegates to
pick a candidate shortly after the voting ends."
Scratch that
"likely." Less than 24 hours after chatting with Pickler, Dean today
revealed exactly what kind of resolution he has in mind. Asked by CBS's Harry Smith
if he "want[s] the
superdelegates to have some sort of vote immediately [after June 3] so
that you'll
know months in advance of the convention what the outcome is,” Dean
replied, in effect, yes. “Well, I think the superdelegates have already
been
weighing in," he said. "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 for at some point between now and the first of July so we don't have to
take this into the convention.”
There you have it, folks: a (loose)
July 1 deadline. Dean's been relatively mum on the subject--and has
taken some flack for his silence--but, according to an aide, he's been having "numerous conversations with over 60 leaders inside
and outside of the Democratic Party" behind the scenes and now plans to
"encourage the superdelegates to make their choice known once the
voters
in the remaining states have had their say." So mark your calendars. It looks like the end's in sight.
