The Democratic Party debate in Philadelphia last night has been blasted by many mainstream journalists (for example, see here and here) as a “gotcha” debate — that is, one in which questions designed to trip up the candidates dominated, rather than substantive issues.

Barack Obama, in particular, took it on the chin for most of the first hour, answering 2 questions about bittergate, 5 questions about Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and 2 questions about Obama’s patriotism before either Iraq or the economy were brought up.

Today at a campaign event in North Carolina, Obama mocked the debate:

“Last night, I think we set a new record because it took us 45 minutes before we even started talking about a single issue that matters to the American people. It took us 45 minutes!”

“Forty-five minutes before we heard about health care. Forty-five minutes before we heard about Iraq,” he continued. “Forty-five - 45 - minutes before we heard about jobs. Forty-five minutes before we heard about gas prices.”

Today, Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean has seen enough. In recent weeks he said he wanted the nomination decided by superdelegates by July 1. Today, he told CNN that he wanted the timeline moved forward to … now.

An increasingly firm Howard Dean told CNN again Thursday that he needs superdelegates to say who they’re for – and “I need them to say who they’re for starting now.”

“We cannot give up two or three months of active campaigning and healing time,” the Democratic National Committee Chairman told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “We’ve got to know who our nominee is.”

A week ago, when Clinton went all in on bittergate, convinced that it was her final shot to take down Obama, I wrote on this site that “Either Clinton or Obama will be politically destroyed by these words and their aftermath. Unlike previous feeding-frenzy moments in this campaign … this one is going to end either Obama or Clinton’s presidential hopes.”

That end can’t some soon enough for Dean. There is a huge possibility that the Democratic Party contest will be done by May 1, not July 1.