The Audacity of Inevitability

Barack Obama is only a candidate, but don't tell that to the Germans, some of whom have leapfrogged that whole election thing and already are calling him "President Obama" in advance of his visit.

For that matter, his own campaign could use a reminder. For the second time in as many days, reporters traveling with Mr. Obama on his overseas trip corrected campaign staffers for saying White House practices also govern his campaign in dealing with the press, or in delivering speeches.

"Days after securing the nomination and losing nine of the last 14 primaries, and 151 days before the general election, Barack Obama is speaking as if he has been elected and re-elected," RNC spokesman Danny Diaz said last month after Mr. Obama suggested he would be ending his second term during the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Mr. Obama's Republican rival, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, says even the press is fawning over the Democrat as if he has been elected, releasing a harsh new ad Tuesday using favorable quotes reporters have given as evidence they are in "love" with Mr. Obama.

The New Hampshire Union Leader reported Tuesday that just one reporter met the Republican at the airport when he landed for a campaign event, but Mr. Obama travels with a press corps that takes up two buses. More reporters travel with Mr. Obama than with the sitting president, and so many scribes wanted a ticket across the Atlantic with the Democratic candidate that the campaign had to turn down about 150 requests.