Although Obama's proposed stimulus plan is better than what Bush would have devised, his own economic team admits it doesn't do enough to reduce unemployment:

“Full employment” clearly means an unemployment rate near 5 — the CBO says 5.2 for the NAIRU, which seems high to me. Unemployment is currently about 7 percent, and heading much higher; Obama himself says that absent stimulus it could go into double digits. Suppose that we’re looking at an economy that, absent stimulus, would have an average unemployment rate of 9 percent over the next two years; this plan would cut that to 7.3 percent, which would be a help but could easily be spun by critics as a failure.

Why? Rather than focusing on creating jobs, Obama added massive tax cuts to the plan in order to achieve broad bipartisan support for the bill. House Republicans responded by demanding an all tax-cut, no spending version of the stimulus plan. Predictably, bipartisan support for the bill appears to have crumbled:

Obama's stimulus package is on track to pass before the Presidents Day recess in mid-February. But it is increasingly doubtful that he will pick up the 80 Senate votes he had hoped to win in the first major legislative test of his presidency. Instead, the bill is likely to pass on the strength of the Democrats' majority.

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said Wednesday that prospects for bipartisanship in the stimulus debate rapidly were eroding.

Obama started by compromising, to make his offer palatable to Congressional Republicans. Given his experience in Congress, one would hope he'd realize that this is not good negotiation strategy. There are two ways this can go: 1) A watered down bill that won't be effective, but will burden us with greater debt as we plunge deeper into recession. This bill will have the support of Congressional Republicans, but when it doesn't work Obama will take the blame. Or 2) A bill without "bipartisan" cover that actually has a chance at working.

Aside from the long-term strategy, a strong stimulus bill is politically useful now. An NBC/WSJ poll released today (q. 28) shows that the public prefers "government spending that creates jobs" over "tax cuts" by 63 percent to 33 percent. Do people really want bipartisanship on this issue, or is that desire driven by elite consensus?

UPDATE: Stimulus bill is now online.