Senior Democratic leaders are mulling the possibility of asking super delegates who are yet to commit themselves to either Senator Hillary Clinton or Senator Barack Obama to do so as soon as the last of the primaries are out in the first week of June and reveal their choices.
The Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in what appears to be a fresh round of concern in party circles that the bitter campaign is going to find its way into the conventional hallways of Denver late August, is thinking of drafting a letter to the super delegates.
The other co-signatories to this letter could include the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee Howard Dean.
Dean, on past several occasions, had publicly said that he was concerned about the bitter primary season and the impact that was going to have on the ability of the Democrats to capture the White House in the November 4 presidential contest.
Top Democrats, on record, are saying that either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama could defeat the Republican presumptive nominee Senator John McCain; but are seriously concerned as to where this campaign season is going to leave the party.
The fears of party leaders are only further aggravated by consistent polls that show supporters of both Senator Clinton and Senator Obama saying that they will either sit out the November 4 contest or vote for Senator McCain if the other is nominated.
The proposed high-level intervention of party elders vis-a-vis super delegates comes in the aftermath of a nine point win for Senator Clinton in Pennsylvania and in a deep concern that the rigorous campaign with all ingredients of a slanging duel is set for Indiana and North Carolina, now being dubbed as the Second Super Tuesday, scheduled for May 6.
It has been a foregone conclusion quite some time back that neither Senator Clinton nor Senator Obama is going to have the 2025 delegates needed for an outright nomination; and hence the focus is on minimising the fallouts of a fight to the end scenario that someone like Senator Clinton has promised.
The showdown in Indiana and North Carolina is expected to be tough. In Indiana, the primaries race is said to be close, but with a slight advantage to the New York Democrat by way of its demographics and political orientation.
Indiana has not voted Democratic in a presidential election since 1964.
Senator Obama is seen to be the favourite in North Carolina.
Pumped up from a good showing in Pennsylvania, the Clinton campaign has claimed that it has netted $10 million in just 24 hours from 100,000 donors -- money that comes in handy in the next several days by way of television and radio advertisements in Indiana and North Carolina.
