The Note: All In?

Nov. 12, 2008— -- Whatever the outcome of the clash between the Bush administration and the Democratic Congress over a bailout package for Detroit, know that President-elect Barack Obama placed himself at this table -- and promptly tossed some valuable chips into the pot.

He had an easy way out: the one-president-at-a-time line. He's just a senator until Jan. 20. He didn't have to turn his Oval Office session with President Bush into a lobbying powwow. And with just the two of them in the room, he certainly (as the Bush team reminded him with a high hard one tossed via Drudge) didn't have to turn private talks into a public spat.

With House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Harry Reid pushing a measure to help automakers during the lame-duck session, they have a partner in ownership: Obama.

It's a quiet kind of power play by a president-elect who's seeking a delicate balance: Obama, insisting that the economy needs more help now, is showing action, not just talking about it.

If it works, Obama would notch a legislative victory even before he's president -- in a quick payoff for his union backers, and (just maybe) for a troubled industry and the economy as a whole.

But if it fails to pass, or if it passes and then fails to work, or even if it works but fails to impress, the president-elect owns an issue that helped get him here a bit earlier -- and more completely -- than he did before.

"Democratic leaders in Congress said Tuesday they will push legislation next week to use the $700 billion Wall Street rescue fund to bail out Detroit auto makers, and President-elect Barack Obama ordered his transition team to look at ways to aid the car industry even before his inauguration," The Wall Street Journal's Jonathan Weisman, Greg Hitt and John D. McKinnon report.

"For Mr. Obama, the crisis in Detroit is turning into an early test of his leadership. Organized labor, including the United Auto Workers, invested heavily in Mr. Obama's campaign," they continue. "It's a situation Mr. Obama's team had hoped to avoid, potentially giving the president-elect responsibility for an emergency before he has any real authority to deal with it. . . . For Mr. Obama, a public intervention on behalf of Detroit puts his political capital at stake on behalf of companies that have lost the confidence of investors and many consumers -- reflected in the reluctance of banks to lend to the companies and their continuing loss of market share."

"A senior Democratic official . . . said Ms. Pelosi had decided to challenge Mr. Bush to work with the Democrats or veto aid to the teetering auto companies -- and take the blame if one of them fails," David M. Herszenhorn and Carl Hulse write in The New York Times. "The White House has resisted calls by Congress to use the $700 billion to help the automakers, saying that money is better spent easing the credit crunch at the heart of the economic crisis."

Key detail: "Congressional aides said Democratic leaders were coordinating their activities with [Obama's] transition team," Herszenhorn and Hulse report.

What of his role? "Mr. Obama does not intend to play a leading role in the [lame-duck] session. Aides said he was focused on the economic packages he would offer as president, as well as working behind the scenes with Congressional Democratic leaders," Herszenhorn and Hulse report. "But aides have not definitively ruled out the prospect of Mr. Obama casting his vote if it was needed. His Senate replacement will not be named by then."

This qualifies as ruling it out: "When Congress convenes for a lame-duck session next week to confront an economic crisis and potentially provide new help for the ailing auto industry, Sen. Obama of Illinois will be noticeably absent," Mark Silva writes in the Chicago Tribune.

Says transition spokesman Dan Pfeiffer: "He's not going to be there."

Writes Silva: "While Obama is pressing for quick action from Congress on an economic stimulus plan, he may not necessarily want to be identified with any package that Bush supports. For all the urgency of action on the economy, or on the problems of the auto industry, severing ties with the Senate in the transition period could pave the way for the president-elect to chart a new course on economy recovery."

They still have to work with the old guy, until Jan. 20: "The White House is lukewarm to Pelosi's idea of using some of the $700 billion banking bailout money for the automobile industry. One senior White House official told me it's 'a slippery slope' and asked rhetorically, 'who's next?' " per ABC's Jonathan Karl. "Meanwhile, the auto industry likes Pelosi's approach, but sees it as a stopgap measure until the new Congress passes something more comprehensive in January. As one auto industry source working with Congressional leaders told me, 'We're talking about a bridge loan, a bridge to the stimulus.' "

And what if Obama's now-public lobbying isn't enough? "A federal bailout for Detroit faces an uphill battle in the Senate and an uncertain fate at the White House," Lori Montgomery and Michael Abramowitz report in The Washington Post. "The move would greatly expand the reach of the government into the private sector and could touch off a mad scramble in other industries to claim a piece of the Treasury's bailout money."

"A stumbling block may be the Senate, where Republicans control 49 seats until the new Congress is seated in January. Many Republican senators were attacked on the campaign trail by Democratic opponents for supporting the original Treasury bailout legislation last month and probably won't be in the mood to expand the program to the car companies," they write.

Nothing major expected out of the transition folks on Wednesday: Obama and Vice-President-elect Joe Biden are in "private meetings" in Chicago all day.

As for those Oval Office negotiations: "Obama's camp was mum today, but White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters before the ceremony aboard the USS Intrepid that the president did not try to cut a deal with Obama on his stimulus request," ABC's Jennifer Duck and Mark Mooney report. Perino: "In no way did the president suggest a quid pro quo when it comes to the Colombian Free Trade agreement or other free trade agreements."

"Is the White House really angry? Or just frustrated?" asks The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder. "Feigning anger might have the consequence of sending a warning to the Obama campaign about negotiations: either they happen in private, where Bush can save face and protect his legacy, or we play hardball too."

More to come, in the next Congress? "President-elect Barack Obama is hearing from private sector economists, and some members of his economic advisory team that Congress should consider -- and he should sign into law in January -- a far broader stimulus package than anyone has publicly discussed to date," ABC's George Stephanopoulos reports. "Instead of $300 billion dollars, which has been the upper limit, they are now talking about $500 billion, which is 3 to 4 percent of GDP."

Are more clashes possible? "Time to open the books, George," the New York Daily News' Michael McAuliff writes. "President-elect Barack Obama's transition team is moving full speed ahead - and starting Monday, will demand access and details from what many regard as the most secretive White House ever."

Are the leaks that big a deal? "Any grumbling assumes there were real 'leaks' from Obama insiders. But beyond that, is there such a tradition of presidential omerta?" Jim Rutenberg writes in The New York Times. "A check of newspaper clippings finds that if it ever existed, it has been broken frequently before."