Democratic dead-heat 'not good news' says Dean
Wed Feb 6, 6:23 PM ET



NEW YORK (AFP) - Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean on Wednesday voiced concern over the prospect of a brokered convention at the end of the party's White House nominating contests.

"The idea that we can afford to have a big fight at the convention and then win the race in the next eight weeks, I think, is not a good scenario," Dean said according to excerpts of an interview with NY1 television.

In state nominating contests so far, no clear winner has emerged among Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for the party's nomination ahead of November's presidential vote to replace George W. Bush in the White House.

"I think we will have a nominee sometime in the middle of March or April. But if we don't, then we're going to have to get the candidates together and make some kind of an arrangement," said Dean, who failed in his bid for the party's nomination in 2004.

"Because I don't think we can afford to have a brokered convention -- that would not be good news for either party."

A brokered convention has not been seen in decades, and harkens back to an era of shady political deal-making when powerbrokers and cash kings -- instead of regular voters -- chose one candidate over another at a raucous, smoke-filled convention hall.

The comments by Dean highlighted the rising tensions among Democrats as rivals Obama and Clinton fight bitterly for delegate votes ahead of the Democratic National Convention in August, at which a nominee is officially selected.

For more than 50 years, each party has selected delegates who favor one nominee over another by a significant margin well ahead of the convention, which exists mainly for ceremonial and celebratory purposes.

The last conventions that required more than one ballot to designate nominees were in 1948 for the Republicans and 1952 for the Democrats.

This, combined with Romney's drop-out, is about the only plausible way the Democrats could really lose this election. But if there's one thing the Democratic Party is good at, it's nit-picking itself and blowing the whole fucking thing.

And unfortunately, the only "deal" I could see brokered is if Obama agrees to drop out in exchange for the VP nomination, and that is incredibly doubtful and would be a huge blow to his image. Hillary sure as shit won't drop out of the race, just with the kind of person she is (I don't want to say "selfish," but...).

*Sigh* I just hope we can count on the GOP base not showing up to vote for McCain. Sad as it is, it might be the same story again. If enough people vote, the Democrats will win. If not enough vote, the Republicans will win. And one thing the GOP is a lot better at is harping on internal dissent in the Democratic Party and spinning their own campaign ads to depress people enough not to come out and vote.

Nice to see Dean talking about making "some kind of arrangement." For a second there I was afraid the Democrats might actually let the person with the most votes win.

Perhaps, just maybe, that would be part of the arrangement.