Dean: Primary system ‘not a mess,’ tells campaigns to cool it

"Party News"

03/28/2008

(CNN) — Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told CNN Friday his party's system for choosing presidential candidates is "not a mess," despite the maze of complexities exposed by the close, bitter battle between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Dean also said he's convinced the delegates from Florida and Michigan, who are currently not being counted, will ultimately be seated at the convention.

And he told CNN that party leadership has had "extensive discussions" with the Clinton and Obama campaigns to cool down their rhetoric.

"I don't think the party is going to implode," he said, writing off the most dire predictions about how this race might ultimately impact the party. But Dean did say the increasingly heated back-and-forth could "demoralize the base."

"Personal attacks demoralize the base…we need to focus on Iraq, we need to focus on gas prices, on mortgages, we need to focus on the economy," Dean said. "These are the things the American people care about. They don't care about people bickering over pastors, over who said what in Bosnia."

Dean was asked to respond to remarks by Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, who told CNN Friday, "If ever we've had an example of a mess, it's this one, and I don't think there's anybody in America that is satisfied with this presidential nominating process."

"It's not a mess. It's actually done much better than we have in the past," Dean told CNN's "American Morning." "Look, people are so excited in places like Texas and Ohio and Pennsylvania and North Carolina where they've never had a chance in 30 years to say who they want for president." Those states have technically weighed in, but the decision in recent elections has been long made by the time their nominating contests came around.

"We've had African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asian-Americans, for the first time, participate in an early presidential state that mattered," Dean added.

Some Democrats are concerned that Michigan and Florida being left out of the process could ultimately leave Democratic voters in those states less interested in turning out for the general election in the fall.

"I think the delegates are eventually going to be seated in Florida and Michigan, as soon as we get an agreement among the candidates how to do that," said Dean.

He added, "The truth is we've had a great campaign season. Yes, it's tough between these two great candidates, but one is going to end up being president of the United States."