Yesterday, I gave careful consideration to Chris Bowers' prediction that "the campaign [will be] over" on May 7, the day after North Carolina and Indiana vote--and decided that it was, well, wrong. Since then, a handful of readers have asked when I think the Democratic nominating contest will wrap up. My answer?

June.

As I wrote yesterday, the political poo-bahs known as superdelegates--the ones who will put either Obama or Clinton over the top--are highly unlikely to break for one or the other before the remaining Democratic primary voters have had a chance to cast their ballots. As a senior House aide recently told Noam Scheiber of the New Republic, they "don't want to be seen as elites coming in and overturning the will of the people." That leaves two possibilities: either a) the superdelegates step in after the primaries and declare a TKO or b) the slugfest continues for unabated for 80 days, until the convention in Denver finally, mercifully ends their (and our) suffering. 

I say June because the last primaries are on June 3, and pretty sure that superdelegates will pick Option A over Option B. Now, not everyone agrees with me. Brendan Nyhan, for one, thinks that "most party elders would prefer that Hillary withdraw but don't want to pay the cost of pushing her out of the race." His reasoning: not only are "the collective benefits of pushing Hillary out much larger than the individual benefit to any one party leader... but it's difficult to coordinate a joint effort to push her out." That's probably true, but the overtime alternative may be worse. Call it the Summer of Hate.  With no voters left to win over, Clinton and Obama will spend more than two months struggling, as I've already written,

"to navigate a weird, unprecedented lull in the action as long as 2004's entire primary season. They will woo superdelegates in secret, underscoring how irrelevant actual voters have become, and attack each other in public, hobbling the eventual victor. Raising money will be tough--enthusiastic primary season supporters will resist forking out for a general election campaign that may never happen. And while Obama and Clinton pour salt on the party's wounds, Republican nominee John McCain will continue to do what he's done for the past four months--rake in the dough, consolidate his support and make his case to the American people."

This nightmare scenario is already causing jitters--which is why two people considerably more influential than Nyhan are suddenly echoing my prediction of a June end date. The first is Nancy Pelosi. After the Bay Area congresswoman came under fire this week from a claque of 24 wealthy pro-Clinton Democratic donors for seconding Obama's assertion superdelegates should follow the "will of the voters" (i.e., the pledged delegate count and/or the popular vote) when choosing a nominee, her spokesman released a statement saying that she "is confident that superdelegates will choose between Sens. Clinton or Obama — our two strong candidates — before the convention in August." Then came Harry Reid. Asked by the Las Vegas Review-Journal if the "race can be resolved before the convention," he broke into a "serene and mysterious smile." "Easy," he said. Here's the rest of the "conversation":

Q: How is that?

Reid: It will be done.

Q: It just will?

Reid: Yep.

Q: Magically?

Reid: No, it will be done. I had a conversation with Governor Dean (Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean) today. Things are being done.

Despite his Vito Corleone tone, Reid, in case you've forgotten, is senate majority leader. And Pelosi is speaker of the House. As superdelegates go, they hold some sway. Unfortunately, though, it looks like we'll have to wait three months before finding out exactly how much.

Where's the Goracle when you need him?