NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Why doesn't the Democratic Party hold a presidential primary among its superdelegates to reach a quick decision between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton?

Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen proposed the idea Wednesday, saying Democrats will suffer in November if the nominee isn't decided until the party's August convention.

But that is about as far as the idea will go.

Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, does not endorse the idea of a superdelegate primary, said spokeswoman Stacie Paxton.

Bredesen himself is a superdelegate and undecided in the race. The national convention will have nearly 800 of them -- elected and party officials -- whose votes for a presidential nominee are not bound by the results of any primary or caucus.

Although it would help avoid a delegate fight at the convention, some argue the convention is a superdelegate primary, and the rules say they don't have to make a decision until then.

"I'm very concerned about what would happen if you got just sort of a brutal summer of two people battling it out," Bredesen told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday.

Bredesen, who also is policy chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, proposed a two-day superdelegate primary for June after the last voter primary.

"There's going to be wounds -- there are wounds already -- and we need to be healing them in June, July and August, and not waiting until two months before the election," he said.

Obama leads Clinton among delegates whose votes were determined by primaries or caucuses, 1,404 to 1,249. But neither is on track to win enough pledged delegates in primaries and caucuses to clinch the nomination -- 2,024 are needed -- so the superdelegates could decide the outcome.

Clinton leads among superdelegates who have announced a choice, 250-213. About 40 percent of the superdelegates have not declared, including 10 Democratic governors.

Bredesen, who first proposed the idea in an opinion piece in Wednesday's editions of The New York Times, acknowledged that the superdelegate primary doesn't have a chance of becoming a reality if it is not run by the DNC.

He said he has spoken with Clinton, who "certainly wasn't repelled by the idea." He said he also planned to speak with Obama.