This extended nomination process, while exhausting, gives the democrats a huge advantage come the general. Here's why:

As the campaigns travel from state to state they are doing an enormous amount of work that will provide a solid foundation for the general election.

They are:

1) Registering thousands of new Democrats in every state.
2) Training hundreds of local organizers and activists. (From trainting young students to build events all the way to updating long time activists on contemporary data management)

and perhaps most powerfully:

3) Updating the state parties' voter files with correct addresses, cell phone numbers, new addresses and removing old and bad numbers/address

A lot of hoopla has been made about the Dems wasting money or delaying their "closing of the ranks."

But to an organizer, the real wealth is in the data, and because of this contest, the Dems' are light-years ahead.