US: Democrats urged to end bitter in-fighting

The Democratic presidential nominee ought to be decided by July 1 in order to avoid bitter in-fighting, the party’s national committee chairman said today.

Howard Dean said he did not want the passionate rivalry between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to “degenerate into a big fight at the convention”.

His deadline would allow all the states to finish voting in the primary season before around 800 so-called superdelegates decide the winner by July, well before the party’s convention at the end of the following month.

His comments came as the Republican presidential candidate John McCain unveiled his first advertisement of the general election campaign, drawing on his national security experience and his time as a Vietnam prisoner of war.

Mr Dean told ABC’s Good Morning America: “I think it would be nice to have this all done by 1 July.

“If we can do it sooner than that, that’s all the better.”

He urged the two Democratic rivals to focus on the general election battle rather than attacks on each other and added: “Somebody’s going to lose this race with 49.8% of the vote, and that person has got to pull their supporters in behind the nominee.”

Mr Obama leads Mrs Clinton in the delegate race, with 1,621 to 1,499, according to the latest Associated Press figures.

The young Illinois senator was endorsed by a popular US senator from the key primary state of Pennsylvania, which is the next state to go to the polls on April 22, today.

Bob Casey could help Mr Obama win Catholic voters, who make up more than 30% of the state, and also white working-class voters known as “Casey Democrats” in the state.

In comments which only emerged today, Senator Patrick Leahy, who has also endorsed Mr Obama, recommended that the former first lady end her campaign last week.

He said Mr Obama was seen to have an insurmountable delegate lead.

“Senator Clinton has every right, but not a very good reason, to remain a candidate for as long as she wants to,” Mr Leahy said.

“As far as the delegate count and the interests of a Democratic victory in November go, there is not a very good reason for drawing this out.

“But as I have said before, that is a decision that only she can make.”

New national polls by the Pew Research Centre and Gallup showed Mr Obama had apparently weathered the storm over anti-semitic comments by his pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright as he maintained a solid lead over Mrs Clinton.

Mr Obama had 50% to Mrs Clinton’s 42% in the Gallup Poll while the Pew survey had him outpacing the former first lady 49% to 39%.

As the Democratic battle continued, Mr McCain launched an advert that showed him imprisoned in Vietnam and called him “the American president Americans have been waiting for”.