Clinton said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York wasn't damaging the party by staying in the race even though she is behind in delegates and unlikely to overtake the Illinois senator based on the contests to come.

"There is somehow the suggestion that because we are having a vigorous debate about who would be the best president, we are going to weaken this party in the fall," he said Sunday at the state Democratic Party convention.

"We're going to win this election if we just chill out and let everybody have their say," Clinton said.

Obama said Saturday that the decision about whether to drop out is for Hillary Clinton to make.

"My attitude is Sen. Clinton can run as long as she wants," he said in Pennsylvania.

Also on Sunday, surrogates for Obama and Hillary Clinton spoke out about a proposal by New York's former governor that the two senators should run together on the fall presidential ticket, regardless of which one wins the nomination, to avoid "a Democratic disaster."

Former governor Mario Cuomo, who has not endorsed either candidate, said in an opinion piece Sunday in The Boston Globe that Clinton and Obama should cut a deal that puts both of them on the ballot in the fall. If one won't defer to the other in the primary race, they should at least announce that whoever loses would be named the vice presidential candidate, he wrote.

"The joint statement announcing their agreement would rock the nation and resound across the globe," Cuomo wrote in a piece headlined, "How to avoid a Democratic disaster."

If the two Democrats keep battling one another through August's Democratic convention in Denver, "the 2008 primary may be the story of a painfully botched grand opportunity," Cuomo wrote.

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a Clinton ally, said on ABC's This Week that he could not speak for Clinton, "but I would love that. I think that this duo, regardless, is a history-making duo."

Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, an Obama ally and the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, said on ABC that the combination "would be terrific in a lot of people's minds" but that decision would be Obama's to make.

Contributing: Ken Dilanian in McLean, Va.

		Bill Clinton, the former president and husband of Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, told a crowd in San Jose on Sunday that it would not hurt to allow the Democratic race to continue. By George Nikitin, AP

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