President Obama on Wednesday will travel to Detroit, kicking off a three-day, three-state presidential trip aimed at stealing the political spotlight from the newly empowered Republicans on Capitol Hill.
His advisers are calling the visits “SOTU Spoilers,” using the acronym for the president’s annual State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress. The prime-time speech traditionally includes an array of policy proposals and announcements kept secret until the final hours before the president delivers it, to build public interest in an otherwise predictable event.
