Beyond the Dome

From looking at Barack Obama’s schedule today, you could easily get the sense he thinks he’s already won the election.

Obama spent the day discussing the economy with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and talking with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani about how to defeat al Qaeda and the Taliban, before ending the day with a rousing pep talk with the House Democratic Caucus. The rounds of high-level talks brought back echoes of some of the only criticism he got during his international trip last week — that all of those meetings with foreign leaders might have been a bit premature.

But House Democrats who sat in on Obama’s meeting with the caucus tonight insisted that, no, he really does remember that the election hasn’t happened yet.

Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., said Obama refused to get too specific about what he’d do on various policy issues for that very reason. He quoted Obama as telling the caucus, “I’m not going to jinx myself. I’m not going to talk about that kind of thing until I actually get there.”

Crowley said House Democrats are trying not to get ahead of themselves either, given the difficulties Obama is likely to face and given that his lead over John McCain isn’t overwhelming in most polls. “People are realistic about the challenges that lie ahead, whether it’s race or regionality — all the unknowns that are out there.”

And Rep. Christopher Carney, D-Pa., said he and his colleagues are reading the same polls everyone else is. “Most people in the caucus are pretty smart. They read the polls, they see what’s ahead. And I think Senator Obama knows he’s got a lot of work ahead of him. This is not put away by any means.”

“You know the saying about the Democratic Party: ‘They never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.’ That’s not going to happen, not by any stretch,” Carney said.

Keep watching, though — especially if Obama is still in the lead in October.