It's never too late for the Dems to pull a switcheroo...remember what they did in New Jersey.
The same could happen here...Kerry is the nominee, but come October, he resigns and withdraws. The Dems go to the Supreme Court becuase the public "must" have a choice, they put Hillary as the sub, not giving the Repubs enough time to combat her, and she wins!!
Oh, the humanity....
I'm not trying to be melodramatic hear, but I think a scenario like this could kill the nation.
The New Jersey situation was for the Senate and was limited to an election in one state. The presidential election is nationwide. There is already precedent for a party running a losing candidate -- see Walter Mondale, who only won one state. The Supreme Court has to keep a candidate as the party representative, no matter how foregone the conclusion looks, otherwise poll-driven chaos will result.
If the Democrats tried something like that nationwide, every state in the union would protest on equal protection grounds. You just can't force 50 states to alter their ballots one month before an election that was scheduled by Congress in 1845. Furthermore, the Democrat Party would take a serious hit by people asking why they can't field candidates who can last the duration. The party's inability to field a strong candidate is no reason for the Supreme Court to alter 215 years of election tradition. There are no mulligans in Presidential politics.
Finally, a Supreme Court battle over this kind of gaming of national elections will rip the court apart, and the blame will fall squarely on the Democrats.
-PJ