Dean wants superdelegates to endorse by July 1

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said Friday that he wants superdelegates to pick a candidate by July 1, adding that the loser of the hard-fought primary has an “obligation” to support the winner.

{mosads}“Somebody's going to lose this race with 49.8 percent of the vote, and that person has got to pull their supporters in behind the nominee,” Dean said on CBS’s “Early Show.” “That’s our obligation. Because in the end this is not about Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, it’s about our country.”

Voices within the Democratic Party have been growing louder to find a way to settle the primary before an increasingly bitter race will hurt the nominee in the general election. Dean is hoping to find a winner long before the nominating convention in Denver.

“I think it would be nice to have this all done by July 1,” the former Vermont governor told ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “If we can do it sooner than that, that’s all the better.”