Think the White House may want to work on its vote-counting operation before the health care bill makes it to the Senate floor?
Think the CBO might be just as brutal as the IOC — with scoring that counts just as much?
Think the public debate over Afghanistan strategy gets any easier as events shape perceptions?
Nobody will much remember a 24-hour trip to Denmark in early fall if, by the start of winter, there’s a health care bill in place and a Afghanistan policy everyone in the administration can agree to.
But whether President Obama’s focus turns abroad again or stays at home for a stretch, the president is confronting the limits of his political capital — from an Olympic loss, to the near-certain loss of a public option in a health care bill, and the end of streamlined decision-making on Afghanistan.