Another whirlwind weekend is coming up for presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama.  This time, all the excitement is right here in San Diego, with the National Council of La Raza’s 40^th anniversary conference at the San Diego Convention Center. The schedule calls for Obama to be the headliner at Sunday’s brunch and McCain to be the attraction at Monday’s luncheon.

With more than 20,000 community organization leaders, activists, politicians, business executives, educators and philanthropists expected to participate this year, the event is billed as the single largest gathering of its kind in the Latino community. Both presidential contenders acknowledge the importance the nation’s largest and fastest growing minority group.  At 46 million, Hispanics make up about 15 percent of the U.S. population and this year they will comprise about 9 percent of the eligible electorate nationwide, or about 18 million eligible voters -- an increase of 2 million from four years ago.

National Democratic Chairman Howard Dean has a problem. It's the hate spewing forth from Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's campaigns that is dividing the Democratic Party and could destroy its chances to take back the White House. He wants the undeclared superdelegates to make up their minds yesterday, certainly well before the August nominating convention, and put one candidate over the top.

In February, I wrote about the options available to the Democratic superdelegates as they individually figure out which candidate to support. I omitted one major element in determining how to decide their vote, and that is pressure from their party leaders. Before the wrenching personal attacks by the candidates escalate to the point where both are so badly damaged that a November win becomes remote, those leaders must intervene.

So, who are they? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have a great deal to lose if the Republicans benefit from a Democratic meltdown at a divided National Convention: Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. Pelosi and Reid are the natural leaders -- but can they short circuit the process without making things worse? Neither has yet come forth with an endorsement. After all, they are active politicians who run the risk of alienating a possible future president.

But consider this: Others are! Nobel Laureate and super superdelegate Al Gore could endorse either candidate and thus powerfully influence the as-yet uncommitted superdelegates. Or, if Democratic unity can't be achieved and the presidency barrels toward John McCain, the delegates at the Democratic National Convention might let the warring candidates loose and nominate the former vice president. He has said that the only way he would return to politics would be as a candidate for president. Politics does have strange twists and turns, and hate is destructive.