WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Barack Obama eventually will gain access to the second half of the $700 billion financial bailout fund — politics notwithstanding and more likely sooner than later.

The test is whether he can persuade enough members of his own party to support an extraordinarily unpopular program and avoid an embarrassing veto fight with a Democratic-led Congress at the outset of his presidency. A critical vote could come as early as Thursday.

Obama faces a handful of freshmen Democrats who opposed the bailout as they campaigned in 2008 and more than a dozen Democratic senators who are up for re-election in 2010, three of whom — Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Ron Wyden of Oregon — voted against the first installment of the money.

These Democrats certainly are weighing the political implications of their next steps.

Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., who supported the bailout last fall and is up for re-election in two years, described himself as “open-minded but skeptical.” Said Bayh: “I don’t get the sense of impending crisis today that I did at the time of original enactment. I need to be persuaded about need.”