The Note: Signed and Sealed

June 23, 2008 -- Forget the transition team -- that was so 2007 -- think he's hiring for the reelect yet? (We're not sure "yes, we can" works anymore -- what about "yeah, we did"?)

Somewhere between the new seal, a new Latin phrase, the shattered public financing pledge, and the not-happening town-hall forums, Sen. Barack Obama made clear that he's really, really sure he's going to win.

Nothing wrong with a little confidence -- Democrats like to be optimistic these days -- and the latest polls give him enough of an edge to quell concerns going into a week that will be defined by a big meeting.

But confidence is a tricky game for Obama, D-Ill., who is still busy defining himself to a skeptical public -- to say nothing of still-seething Clinton supporters (and an increasingly frustrated press corps).

In his rush to take advantages where they present themselves, Obama just may have eroded his central message -- as reformer, as change agent, as different-kind-of-politician. The question now is whether Sen. John McCain can do anything about it (and remember that he aims for those same qualities).

As things stand, there will be no public financing, and there will be no freewheeling town-hall forums. There's one candidate who's the main reason for both of those facts.

"By refusing to join McCain in these initiatives in order to protect his own interests, Obama raises an important question: Has he built sufficient trust so that his motives will be accepted by the voters who are only now starting to figure out what makes him tick?" David Broder writes in his Sunday Washington Post column.

Suggestions to the contrary notwithstanding, Obama did not plop upon us fully formed and ready to take his country into flight.

"For all his talk about change, Obama remains a product of a Chicago and Illinois political culture renowned for corruption and filled with characters who range from felonious to just outrageous," Bob Secter and John McCormick write in the Chicago Tribune. "Whether any of that will matter in November is an open question, but Obama clearly is betting he can benefit from Chicago's reputation for toughness without being tainted by its darker political side."

That's one way to cast his decision to jettison his commitment to public financing (though Republicans can think of a few other ways). "Perhaps people didn't know how tough he is. He's been saying all along, don't confuse hope with naivete," Obama friend and adviser Valerie Jarrett tells The Washington Post's Dan Balz and Anne E. Kornblut.

Write Balz and Kornblut: "If some Republicans rue the swift and calculated nature they say characterizes Obama's early steps, his campaign advisers say they have needed to move quickly to make up for the months spent waging the extended primary race. They cast the decision on public financing, for example, as motivated partly by timing, with just four full months left until Election Day to provide voters with the vision of Obama they hope to establish."

He's got name recognition -- but he's still coming into focus. "The problem [for Obama] is, many don't know much about his background or where he stands on the issues, and Republicans and groups working for his defeat in November are working to define him on their terms," Christina Bellantoni writes in the Washington Times.

While he's at it -- why not try to win 48 states or so? "Senator Barack Obama is drawing up plans for extensive advertising and voter-turnout drives across the nation, hoping to capitalize on his expected fund-raising advantage over Senator John McCain to force Republicans to compete in states they have not had to defend in decades," Jim Rutenberg and Christopher Drew write in the Sunday New York Times.

"Aides and advisers to Mr. Obama said they did not believe he necessarily had a serious chance of winning in many of the traditionally Republican states. They said he could at least draw Mr. McCain into spending time and money in those places while swelling Democratic enrollment and supporting other Democrats on the ballot."

If that's hope, this is audacity. Your very own Obama presidential seal, complete with Latin inscription: "Vero Possumus" -- very roughly, "yes, we can."

"Audacity of hype," quips ABC's Jake Tapper. "No word on whether they played a remix of 'Hail to the Chief' as Obama walked in."

"Yes, he can. But, really: Oh, no, he didn't!" Michael Saul and Celeste Katz write in the New York Daily News.

There's still work to be done inside the party -- and some Democrats are looking for humility: "A Thursday afternoon meeting between Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus grew tense and emotional for a moment -- perhaps illustrating that weeks after Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., suspended her presidential campaign, some nerves remain frayed," ABC's Jake Tapper and Kate Snow report.

The three words at the end of an Obama sentence that rubbed Rep. Diane Watson, D-Calif., and others the wrong way: "get over it."

Obama will have to tread carefully this week, with Thursday bringing the most anticipated summit this side of Camp David: "The Democratic senator from Illinois will return to the reality of running a costly campaign by meeting with a new group of influential and well-heeled donors," Christopher Cooper writes in The Wall Street Journal.

"The presumptive nominee will arrive in Washington Thursday for a powwow with the 'Hillraisers,' the cadre of top-producing fund-raisers who propped up Hillary Clinton's run for the White House," Cooper writes. Key point: "Hillraisers say they have been privately assured by Obama finance officials that the senator himself will ask his maxed-out donors to help pay Sen. Clinton's bills, though many believe that effort will be a drop in the debt bucket, netting her only $300,000 or so."

"There remain raw emotions in both camps as the two former foes prepare to campaign together," ABC's Jake Tapper reported on "Good Morning America" Monday. "People close to Hillary Clinton are frustrated that the Obama campaign has yet to propose a way to help her retire her more than $10 million in debt. Some close to Obama think the Clintons are being sore losers."

There is give, and there is take. "As the ex-foes are scheduled to sit down face to face this week and talk fund-raising, each needs to leave the table with the promise of riches," Ginger Adams Otis writes in the New York Post.

Warned Hassan Nemazee, a Clinton national finance chairman: "It's far more productive for Obama to have Hillary 100 percent focused and engaged on campaigning and raising money for him in the fall rather than having to do fund-raisers at the same time to retire her debt."

More than money is at stake: "This year's most-watched group so far consists of women so disgruntled by Hillary Rodham Clinton's loss in the Democratic primary that they vow to vote for Republican John McCain in November, a group dubbed the 'Nobama Mamas' by Slate magazine," Thomas Fitzgerald writes in the Philadelphia Inquirer. "Both McCain and presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama have taken steps to court these women."

Clinton was back in public on Sunday, keeping a promise to deliver a high-school commencement address. (And she'll be back in the Senate this week, in advance of the Thursday joint meeting and some time on the trail with Obama Friday.)

"With flashbulbs firing and security guards working to keep the enthusiastic crowds back -- Clinton expressed no regret at being off the stump and back to her job as senator," the New York Daily News' Celeste Katz writes of her appearance in the Bronx.

Said Clinton: "I have just finished the most extraordinary experience that anybody could possibly have: being able to travel around our country, this great, sprawling, diverse country from one end to the other, meeting thousands and thousands of people who want a better life for themselves and their families, who believe in all their heart in the American Dream," Clinton said.