A day after he went up to meet behind closed doors with Republicans in both the House and Senate, President Obama will see if that drew any votes as the House votes on his economic stimulus plans.

What the Obama White House would like is a good chunk of Republicans to vote for this bill, so they can talk about real bipartisanship.

I would think one or two GOP'ers might break ranks on this.  There have to be some Republicans in Ohio or Michigan or some swing district somewhere who is feeling the heat to vote for it.

But maybe GOP leaders will pitch a shutout.

When the vote is over, one of the big issues for the press corps will be how many Republicans vote for this bill, especially since President Obama has made such a pitch about bipartisanship.

There's two ways to look at it.  Republicans are being jerks and ignoring the pleas of Obama to work together, or Obama failed in his first big test to get GOP votes for a major piece of legislation.

The liberal blogs are already getting hissy about what they see as "media bias" against Obama and in favor of the Republicans on this.

(I know this may come as a bit of a surprise to many of my readers, but there are an awful lot of liberals out there who think the press corps rolled over for the last eight years of George W. Bush.)

"I'm starting to get really annoyed with most news outlets, particularly Politico, which seems to be auditioning for the role of Drudge 2.0," wrote one reader on talkingpointsmemo.com.

That blog's creator Josh Marshall then gave voice to what many Democrats believe.  And it isn't what a lot of Republicans believe.

"I do think it's an example of the continuing Republican tilt of much of the capital press corps," Marshall wrote.

But we digress.

The issue of Obama failing to get Republican votes is an interesting one.  He certainly tried, didn't he?  At least he made it look like he was trying by going to Capitol Hill to meet with GOP lawmakers.

Remember, everyone is trying their best to get an advantage on the other side.  Democrats will certainly try to pin Republicans down as a bunch of rich morons who only want tax cuts for millionaires and who only have one answer for every question, "tax cuts."

The GOP meanwhile is desperately trying to regain its credibility among voters as the party that can be trusted more to deal with budget issues.  So they rail against the big spending, tax-em-up liberals.

For now, Obama will have a victory tonight.  But there's still a lot to do to get this bill to his desk.  We'll see if he can get many Republicans to help out.

Or none at all.

Whose fault is that?