Right now there's a Recommended Diary calling out the President for folding on tax cuts for the rich. The basis for this diary is this story from the Huffington Post.
Like a lot of other stuff that comes from the Huffington Post, this needs to be taken with a salt lick. Still, I think it's largely correct, just based on the goals of each player. In this political environment, some kind of deal that extends tax cuts across the board is pretty much inevitable, and the extension is almost certainly going to be temporary. It's only a matter of how many years they are extended. Follow along with my reasoning (and BTW, feel free to tell me where I'm wrong) after the fold.