Kerry urges superdelegates to pick before July

Sen. John Kerry (Mass.), the last Democratic presidential candidate and a strong supporter of Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), on Sunday urged his party’s superdelegates to make their choice so that the winner of the primary can focus on beating presumptive GOP nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) in the fall.

Kerry expressed a strong belief that the battle between Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) will “resolve itself,” but he noted that time is a factor.

{mosads}“I think that the superdelegates ought to decide early. I would even say earlier than July,” Kerry said on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos. “As a former nominee, I will tell you, this time right now is critical to us.”

In a week in which two prominent supporters of the Illinois senator, Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) have suggested Clinton should drop out of the race, Kerry said it is not up to the Obama campaign to tell the former first lady to end her pursuit of the nomination. However, the 2004 nominee indicated that he believes that there will be a “consensus about it, and I think it’s going to occur over these next weeks.”

Appearing with Kerry was Clinton supporter and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D), who argued to let the primary process end before deciding on a nominee. In addition, he argued that Clinton would be the winner of the popular vote if Michigan and Florida would be allowed to revote.

Victories by the former first lady in the two key states, which had the results of their January primaries voided because they had violated Democratic National Committee rules by moving up too far in the calendar, would “undercut the whole theme of the Obama campaign,” Rendell said.

Both Democrats displayed some concern that a negative tone in the campaign would hurt the eventual nominee.

“The important thing is to be fighting against John McCain and not to be destructive in this
campaign, either campaigns,” Kerry said. “It is very important for both people to keep the eye on the real target — John McCain and the Republican disaster of the last seven and a half years.”