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Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean was on NBC’s “Meet the Press” today and he said that he hoped the Democratic Party would have their nominee by the end of June.

Host Tim Russert asked Dean how and when this nomination fight is going to end. Dean answered, “Well, I’m hoping it’ll be over by the end of the month of June. We’ve made great progress in the last few weeks that I think about 50 or 60 unpledged delegates have said who they’re going to be for. And, you know it’d be a lot of fun for you if we had a divided convention with 104 ballots; it’d break the record. But the truth is we need to figure this out before the convention. We need time to heal.”

He said the most important person, in terms of healing the party, will not be himself, but the loser of the contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. “Actually, I’m not the most important person in terms of bringing the party together. The most important person is the, is the person who doesn’t win the nomination. Because I can remember when, I can remember when I lost to John Kerry, I had to go out and convince my supporters–it took me about three months–which they needed to support Senator Kerry. I endorsed him, I campaigned for him, I went all–to all the college campuses. And that’s what the person, who doesn’t win this, with 49 percent of the delegates, is going to have to do in order to keep the party together.”

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Dean also said what everybody already knows, the only way the Democratic Party can lose in November is if they aren’t unified, “The only thing that’s going to beat us is if we’re not unified. And my, in order to be unified, both the losing candidate and the winning candidate have to feel like the system was fair.”

I voted for Obama, but I believe the best way to unify the party is to leave Clinton in the race until Barack Obama has clinched the nomination. Forcing her out of the race, may only solidify the party divide.

Obama supporters might not like to hear this, but they are going to need the support of Clinton voters to win in November. They can’t win with only half of the Democratic Party behind them. I say let her play out the string, so that she loses fair and square, and has nothing to complain about later.

Watch the video, or read the transcript:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24338217/