Dean is hoping that the rest of the superdelegates will follow his advice and declare their votes during the coming weeks and effectively end the race. If Obama's lead holds, as is likely, he will be close to 2,000 delegates, allowing the superdelegates to put him over the top.

As for Florida and Michigan, Dean is making it clear to party leaders that once the nomination race is all but over, there will be an agreement to seat both delegations under a proportional formula still to be worked out.

But neither campaign is ready to compromise at this point. "Let me just say that the campaigns believe that kind of deal is premature right now," Dean said.

Across the aisle, John McCain has been effectively reaching out to the GOP's base to unite his party and building an organization for the general election. He has put Lew Eisenberg, former partner at Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs, in charge of fund-raising. Insiders told me that campaign contributions have risen significantly.

He has picked conservative strategist Frank Donatelli, a former White House political director under President Reagan, to be the Republican National Committee's deputy chairman and the campaign's liaison to the RNC.

He has also hired former RNC political director Mike DuHaime, who ran Rudy Giuliani's presidential bid. A veteran strategist who oversaw the voter-turnout apparatus that re-elected President Bush, DuHaime will help build the RNC's campaign operation.

It may take months before the Democrats entirely get their act together, and how unified it will be remains a huge question. In the meantime, McCain is already running his campaign, airing TV ads, staffing state and regional operations, and sharpening issues that the GOP believes will defeat a divided and dispirited opposition.