Howard Dean Asks the Impossible of His Superdelegates: Decide

DNC Chairman Howard Dean is telling superdelegates that time is up. Pencils down. Pass your vote for the Democratic nominee to the front of the class…

"We cannot give up two or three months of active campaigning and healing time," the Democratic National Committee Chairman told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "We've got to know who our nominee is."

After facing criticism for a mostly hands-off leadership style during much of the primary season, Dean has been steadily raising the rhetorical pressure on superdelegates. He said Thursday that roughly 65 percent of them have made their preference plain, but that more than 300 have yet to make up their minds.

I think it's unfair of Dean to ask this of his superdelegates. I mean, there's still a few more primaries on the horizon. There's always the chance — however slim and mathematically impossible — that the voters will make their decision for them.

Every superdelegate in every state deserves the right to not have to do the job they were elected to do.