Obama Appeals to Public for Support on Stimulus Plan

Barack Obama began drawing down on his political capital to protect his economic rescue plan today, saying the package was a crucial part of his election promise to bring change to Washington.

In a series of direct appeals to voters, Obama said the economic rescue plan, now approaching $900bn, was an essential part of the change Americans had voted for in November when they elected him president.

Diluting the package as Republicans as well as conservative Democrats now demand would represent a return to business as usual, Obama warned.

"In recent days, there have been misguided criticisms of this plan that echo the failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis - the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems; that we can meet our enormous tests with half-steps and piecemeal measures; that we can ignore fundamental challenges such as energy independence and the high cost of healthcare and still expect our economy and our country to thrive," Obama wrote in an opinion piece in the Washington Post.

"I reject these theories, and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change."

He shored up the appeal in a speech later today, warning that each day of delayed passage was costing Americans jobs.

"The time for talk is over," he warned during a speech at the energy department.

The orchestrated public appeals comes as the economic rescue plan presents Obama with his biggest test in his two weeks in the White House of his claimed ability to reach across the partisan divide and get Washington to work effectively.

The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, said today he was confident the Democrats had the votes to pass the package.

But Obama's public relations drive was widely seen in Washington as a sign of a popular president having to fight to get his legislation passed.

"In just two weeks, the elation of inauguration day has given way to a classic form of partisan hardball. Obama and his advisers have been forced to learn basic lessons on the run," the liberal commentator, EJ Dionne wrote on the same page as Obama in the Post. "One more lesson: No occupant of the White House has ever been able to walk on water."

Obama warned today that new jobless figures out tomorrow will show a sharp rise in unemployment - underlining the urgency of passing the economic plan.

But his warning comes amid resistance from Republicans as well as moderate Democrats to a spending plan which sought to spur investment on clean energy, public transport and crumbling infrastructure.

Obama launched his public sales campaign on Tuesday with five television interviews. But the effort got lost when Tom Daschle, Obama's choice of health secretary, was forced to withdraw because of unpaid taxes.

By yesterday there were fears that the rescue plan might have trouble passing in the Senate - at least without significant spending cuts.

Republican and conservative Democratic senators demanded cuts of almost $200bn, slashing away at projects for rail transport, climate change, and research on sexually transmitted disease.

So the president decided to call in reinforcements, dispatching his wife Michelle on a tour of federal government departments. The vice-president, Joe Biden, delivered a speech from a suburban rail station in Maryland today saying investment in public transport could help create 400,000 new jobs.

Later today, Obama is scheduled to attend a meeting of House Democrats in Williamsburg, Virginia. Behind the scenes, Obama will also conduct a dogged lobbying effort, with telephone calls to Capitol Hill and private meetings at the White House for senators who have balked at the size of the package.

The effort will crest next Monday when Obama holds his first press conference since entering the White House. He has also told senators he is considering making an Oval Office address to try to build public support behind the economic rescue plan.

The appeal was the first stage of a concerted effort by Obama to regain control over his economic agenda, and prevent critics from radically cutting back the rescue package.

The White House said it hopes the Senate will pass its version of a rescue plan within days, and that a bill would be ready for Obama to sign by the end of next week.

But Obama faced increasing challenges to his rescue plan, with Republicans as well as conservative Democrats saying the package was weighed down by wasteful and frivolous projects that would not further its stated purpose of creating jobs and spurring the economy.Today, the president argued that approach would represent surrender.

"We have a choice to make. We can once again let Washington's bad habits stand in the way of progress," he wrote in the Post. Or, he added, "We can place good ideas ahead of old ideological battles, and a sense of purpose above the same narrow partisanship."