March 29, 2008	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 20, 1429

WASHINGTON, March 28: Democratic chief Howard Dean on Friday warned Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton not to rip the party apart with their bitter White House battle and tried to head off a divisive convention fight.

Dean intervened hours after both candidates pledged that whoever eventually emerges on the top of their tense struggle will unite Democrats to thwart Republican candidate John McCain in November’s presidential election.

“I think the candidates have got to understand that they have an obligation to our country to unify,” the Democratic National Committee chairman told CBS.

“Somebody’s going to lose this race with 49.8 per cent of the vote, and that person has got to pull their supporters in behind the nominee.

“That’s our obligation. Because in the end this is not about Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, it’s about our country. We’re not going to have four more years of George W. Bush, which is essentially what McCain is offering us.” Dean also said he favoured a solution which would see party luminaries, or superdelegates effectively crown the nominee long before the Democratic convention in August in Denver.

“I think 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 on between now and the 1st of July so we don’t have to take this into the convention.” Neither Clinton nor Obama can reach the magic number of 2,025 delegates necessary to wrap up the nomination, so the choice of superdelegates will be decisive.

Dean giving voice to increasing current concern among leading Democrats that the internecine warfare could scupper a golden chance to win the White House from a ragged Republican party, as the US economy staggers.

But the DNC chairman and unsuccessful 2004 presidential candidate, has little power to force either hopeful out of the race, in which Obama currently leads in both pledged delegates and the popular vote.

On Thursday, Clinton was asked while campaigning in North Carolina what she would say to Democrats who might consider voting for McCain, if their preferred candidate loses in the noxious party tussle.

“Please think through this decision,” Clinton said. “It is not a wise decision for yourself or your country.” “I intend to do everything I can to make sure we have a unified Democratic party ... when this contest is over and we have a nominee, we’re going to close ranks, we’re going to be united.” Obama, speaking to ABC News, admitted that whichever camp loses the race is likely to suffer “bruised feelings.” “It’s tough ... we have been campaigning now for a long time. We have got very ardent supporters on both sides.

“I don’t think we are hurt, long-term. I think short-term, there is going to be work to do for the nominee to bring the party back together again,” Obama said.

“We are going to have to come together and remind ourselves that there is a heck of a lot bigger difference between either Senator Clinton or myself, and John McCain.” Former Democratic candidate Senator Christopher Dodd, now an Obama supporter, said on Thursday the party must quickly coalesce around its nominee.

“Over the next couple of weeks, as we get into April, it seems to me then, that the national leadership of this party has to stand up and reach a conclusion — instead of having this sort of drip on for the next five months — that is devastating in my view,” Dodd said.

Obama was to spend the weekend barnstorming in Pennsylvania, which votes April 22, while Clinton’s schedule was packed with events in Indiana, which votes May 6.

An NBC-Wall Street Journal poll suggested that more than 20 per cent of Clinton and Obama supporters would defect to McCain in November’s election if their favoured Democrat fails to win the nomination.—AFP