A few paragraphs in this morning's paper caught my eye.
The narrow margin in delegates, and the growing likelihood that it will remain close, stirred concern on Wednesday from the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Howard Dean, who said Tuesday night that Obama and Clinton should avoid taking the nominating fight all the way to the party convention in August.
Dean says he things the Democrats need to have a nominee by mid-March or April.
(I didn't see this in the diaries over the last couple of days.) More below the fold.
In a Seattle P-I articleabout both Republican and Democratic races, Dean is quoted on the possibility of a brokered convention.
"I think we will have a nominee sometime in the middle of March or April," Dean said Wednesday on the NY1 cable news channel, "but if we don't, then we're going to have to get the candidates together and make some kind of an arrangement. Because I don't think we can afford to have a brokered convention; that would not be good news for either party."
An adviser to Dean said Wednesday that the chairman had not discussed the idea with either candidate. "He was essentially laying down a marker that if need be, he is prepared to step in and try to help resolve the situation," the adviser said. Obama and Clinton spent Wednesday meeting with their advisers to calibrate for the next stage, and also held dueling news conferences where they sought to project optimism and momentum.
Given this timeline, we have only the remaining February contests and then Ohio and Texas on March 4th. So, each of these next contests then becomes even more important. Then the DNC could pressure the super-delegates to fall in line behind whoever was winning.
As an Obama supporter, I think he needs to win as many of the February contests as possible and either win or draw March 4th. Talk about pressure. If you are in Washington State (as I am) or any of the other contests this weekend or next Tuesday, this is our time to change the course of history.