Dem Leaders Dishing Obama Credit On Bailout

With victory in hand on the bailout vote, Democratic House leaders are rushing to give Barack Obama credit for helping wavering Democrats get behind the bill in today's historic vote.

"I want to thank one person who's not here, and that's Barack Obama, who made numerous calls and helped us get the votes to pass this," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) the House Democratic Caucus chairman.

Obama did indeed call several lawmakers like Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), who changed his vote today. But it's not clear yet how wide Obama's influence really was.

Reps. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and John Larson (D-Conn.), both of whom are Democratic leaders, also just praised Obama for helping win over Democrats who voted no on Monday and just helped push the bill toward passage today.

This will be an ongoing theme now with Democrats — they'd love to give Barack Obama credit for bringing Democrats to the table and helping pass the bill.

We'll see if any of the House Republican vote switchers want to give credit to John McCain.