State of the Union Showdown: Obama, Tea Party on Collision Course

Monday, 24 Jan 2011 08:33 PM
By David A. Patten

In yet another bid to position himself as rising above the political fray, President Barack Obama is expected to issue a renewed appeal for both parties to find common ground in his State of the Union Message on Tuesday. Yet he appears to be on a collision course with grass-roots conservatives who insist they have no intention of backing down on their demands for massive cuts in federal spending.

“There is a clear rhetorical contradiction between a call for sizeable deficit reduction and a simultaneous proposal to spend on favored priorities,â€