Tomorrow's stimulus vote and the message war

It's clear that Republicans won the stimulus bill media rampage brouhaha last week with their chief message about how wasteful and unneccessary much of the spending in the bill would be seeping into the national consciousness and causing a conservative media revolt against Obama's plan. They have clearly bet that Obama's plan will not work, have drawn a line in the sand, and are crossing their fingers and awaiting that giant "I told you so" moment they believe will inevitably bring America back to them in two or four years. Today's hidden message is not that "it's the economy stupid," but that it's "the next election, stupid." Both sides think their right, and it's literally, only time that will tell.
Obama took his case straight to the American people today, his administration vowing not to lose another message battle and taking full advantage of the Presidential bully pulpit today. His mission is simply to make sure that his powerful oratory, high approval ratings, and ability to roadblock primetime telivision to carry his message will cripple Republican opposition and make them seem more and more like a fringe party cowtowing to the rants of Rush Limbaugh.
Although this doesn't mean that bipartisanship is truly dead, it still took 3 moderate Republicans (albeit from generally liberal states) to get to tonight's cloture vote in the senate that ended deliberation on the stimulus bill. During Obama's press conference, also, despite the many times he repeated that Republicans and the Bush Administration are responsible for the current crisis, he alluded that he will continue to try and foster support amongst Republicans for this and future projects, and wants to continue to create a good working relationship amongst the minority party in both houses of congress -- maybe as an exit strategy, because he knows that if this isn't sucessful and Republicans make larger gains in the 2010 midterm elections, he's going to need to call in a lot of favors. Obama also is holding another town hall meeting tomorrow, and this time he'll be introduced by a popular Republican governor that endorsed his rival in last year's election, but also desperately needs the money that the stimulus bill will bring to his cash strapped state.
The bill will be brought bring to a final floor vote tomorrow afternoon. There were many large concessions by Democrats under pressure from both Republicans and the administration to curtail anything that could be regarded as a liberal pet project. The bill will pass so anything they do is also purely a symbolic gesture as this bill will most certainly pass along party lines.
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will pitch his own battle in the message war tomorrow, introducing his plan to spend the final remains of the drastically unpopular $350 Billion TARP money that was approved by congress last October, and unlike Obama, he doesn't have the approval ratings to back him up.