For weeks, Barack Obama has been framing his economic stimulus package as an umbrella bill encompassing much of his broad domestic agenda. Now that President Obama is in office, the bill is no longer an abstraction and the work to pass it begins in earnest.

From Bloomberg:

President Barack Obama, seeking to sell his stimulus package to the public, promoted plans to build up clean-energy industries, expand health-insurance coverage and boost security at U.S. ports as part of the broader effort to jump-start the sputtering U.S. economy.

"If we do not act boldly and swiftly, a bad situation could become dramatically worse," Obama said today in his first weekly radio and video address as president.

The administration released a report today outlining some of Obama's priorities for the two-year recovery package. They include loan guarantees and other support to open up credit for renewable-energy investors, providing health insurance coverage to almost 8.5 million people who've lost jobs and enhancing security at 90 ports.

As I've written several times before, the message Obama is sending to potential opponents to the bill is a sort of dare: "to oppose me on health care, on energy, on infrastructure, is to oppose economic recovery."

You can read the House version of the stimulus bill HERE. You can watch President Obama speak about the bill in his weekly national address over at WhiteHouse.Gov.

The President is fulfilling his pledge to open up government by bringing an unprecedented level of transparency to the process.

I know that some are skeptical about the size and scale of this recovery plan. I understand that skepticism, which is why this recovery plan must and will include unprecedented measures that will allow the American people to hold my Administration accountable for these results. We won't just throw money at our problems - we'll invest in what works. Instead of politicians doling out money behind a veil of secrecy, decisions about where we invest will be made public, and informed by independent experts whenever possible.

What he doesn't say overtly in this address -- but what is one of the reasons Obama has been using his addresses on YouTube and now at WhiteHouse.gov to take his plan for economic recovery straight to the people -- is that he knows that if the American people are on board, it will be far more difficult for their representatives to oppose it. At over $800 billion, the package is higher than many Republicans are comfortable with and while Obama really only needs 1 Republican Senator to vote Yes -- assuming he has all the Ds and Is -- politically, Obama would prefer for this to pass in a bi-partisan way. Hence the coming effort to get Republicans on board.

Greg Sargent reports that just such an advertising blitz is set to begin next week.

I've just learned that an ad campaign blitzing a half dozen GOP Senators will be launched in the middle of next week by one such outside group, Americans United For Change, which will air ads for at least four days pressuring the Senators to back Obama's stimulus package. [...]

"The ads will say, `Senator, you have a stark choice. Are you going to play politics as usual and embrace the failed policies of the past, or will you support the Obama plan?'" says a Democratic operative involved in the project. "Mentioning the Obama plan is central because his approval rating is at 70% or more. In our polling, he is a dominant messenger."

The ads will target those Republicans who are widely viewed as the most likely allies for the Democrats in the Senate: Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Judd Gregg (N.H.), Chuck Grassley (Iowa), and George Voinovich (Ohio).

Of course, Obama's desire for broad bi-partisan support for the measure gives Republicans perhaps more power than they ought to have. Personally, I like Rep. James Clyburn's take:

However, as Obama continued to invest his political capital in a bipartisan push, another Democratic leader suggested that it is up to Republicans to support the new president. "We had an election on November 4, and the American people voted overwhelmingly for the approach being offered by the Democrats," House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (S.C.) said in an interview scheduled to air over the weekend on C-SPAN. "And I think my Republican friends ought to respect that."

Or as Obama himself reportedly said at a sit down with Republican lawmakers yesterday:

"I won."

The House could take up the bill as soon as Wednesday and the Senate is expected to begin considering it on February 2nd. President Obama's goal is for it to pass Congress and for him to sign it by mid-February.