The intense battle for the Democratic nomination will at best leave behind a lot of ugly scar tissue. It may, however, very likely cost the Democratic candidate the election.

Back in February I warned in my post that a fight to the end will hurt the Democrats. Now this is starting to manifest itself. A recent Gallup poll shows that 20 to 30 percent of voters will turn to McCain if their candidate does not win. [1].

The long drawn out nomination process is much to blame for this. It is drawn out for several reasons. 1) The nomination process is done by holding primaries. 2) The primaries are held over several months. 3) there are two strong candidates, who have split the vote and thus the delegates. 4) Both candidates are fighting hard and are willing to fight and able to fight to the end.

Having voters determine through primaries who will be a parties candidates may give more weight to the party base instead of party bosses, but it forces the democratic candidates to compete publicly for the nomination. When the contest gets ugly you have Democrats bashing Democrats or Republicans bashing Republicans publicly, which may divide the party supporters and weaken the party.

Conducting the primaries and caucuses over such a long period of time (January to June) forces the candidates to spend huge amounts of time and money contesting against one another rather that the opponents from the other party. Primaries should be held in a period no longer than 30 days early in the election year (no later than April). This years Super Tuesday proves that this can be done. This will give the designated nominee time to switch over to the general election and will curtail the inner party competition. If no candidate receives enough pledged delegates through the primaries, there is still enough time to work out who will be the nominee and get on to the general election. All the debate about how the nominee should be decided will be shortened and will not distract as much as it is now.

Since it is very unlikely that the system will change, we can only hope that a candidate will emerge successful early in the primary season. This gives the party time to regroup under the nominee. Resources will be saved and continuous bashing among the parties candidates will be long forgotten by the time of the general election.

For the Democrats the primary season has gone to far and gotten too intense. Neither candidate is willing to give in.

There is a point when each candidate must take a step back from the battle and look at the big picture. It is a time to put personal ambitions aside and consider what is best for the party and the cause, the candidates are fighting for. At this point the candidates need to come together and work out who should get the nomination. The opponent should drop out of the race and put their full support behind the candidate. This means convincingly urging their supporters to stand behind the designated candidate with the same passion. To work together to win the election in November.

The Republicans have understood this. It is high time that the Democratic candidates do the same. The point in time is now. If they cannot agree upon who will get the nomination are start working together – yes I do mean work together, actively! – they will considerably endanger either ones chances of winning in November.

[1] http://www.gallup.com/poll/105691/McCain-vs-Obama-28-Clinton-Backers-McCain.aspx

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