President Barack Obama approaches his State of the Union speech Tuesday without having fulfilled a number of promises from earlier annual addresses.

These include reforming immigration laws, rewriting the nation's governing education statute, doing away with subsidies to oil companies - even holding annual meetings with Democratic and Republican congressional leaders.

The reality is that for Obama, like presidents before him, the lofty goals he delivers before a joint session of Congress and a prime-time television audience often fall victim to the messy realities of governing.

And this year will be even tougher for the president in that regard, given a divided, partisan Congress and a presidential election campaign well under way.