Howard Dean says if race goes to convention...no time left to heal.

Dean had a very good interview today on the Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. He said two things that really struck me. He said that there will be no healing time left after a brokered convention with only about 8 weeks until the election. He fears it will split the party.

Here is the video from CNN.

Dean: Primaries are a 'walk in the park' compared to the General Election

BLITZER: Explain why you're concerned if this were -- were to go to the convention floor. Why would that be a bad thing?

DEAN: Well, if you go to the convention floor with eight weeks to go -- I've been to those kinds of conventions before. We had one in '68, but I didn't go to that one. But that was the most outrageous.

In '72, there was a big fight over seating delegates. In 1980, there was a division between Senator Kennedy and President Carter. Divided conventions were people walk out and there's a lot of to do, it takes time to heal. And this convention is very late because of the public finance rules.

So I would strongly prefer to have a -- there's no reason not to have a nominee -- a clear nominee -- before the convention starts. And that solves all the problems of Florida and Michigan. And it solves unifying the party again.

He also reiterated that you can not change the rules of the primary after it has already begun. He says everyone knew the rules, even Florida and Michigan.

More from the CNN Transcript

BLITZER: You're not one of those Democrats who says whoever gets the most pledged delegates must get the nomination, forget about the super-delegates?

DEAN: My job is to follow the rules, to follow the rules regarding what states have done and if they're eligible or not and to follow the rules regarding super-delegate. Everybody knew what the rules were when they got into this. So to change the rules in the middle of the game is clearly unfair, no matter what candidate it benefits.

Once you start the game, you can't change the rules, because everybody knew what those rules were. They knew that there were 20 percent super-delegates. They knew that Florida and Michigan delegates couldn't participate in the nomination. And to change those rules, you either have to have a nominee who agrees to it or both campaigns that agree to it. And I don't think that's going to happen.

BLITZER: And --

DEAN: So the rules are not going to be changed.

I don't think Hillary will drop out. I think she will go after the Florida delegates at least. I think Governor Dean will be in control of this. I think they underestimate him.

I wish it did not have to be this way, but a sense of entitlement is there. I hope the 50 Superdelegates that Brian Williams said would appear for Obama are going to show up soon.

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