Is Extra space in my XML causing a problem?

I am trying to suppress a column in XSL (if the values is 'null'), but
the text I'm comparing to isn't ever matching. This used to work when my
XML tags were wrapped around the data, but now that I'm using a third
party app (XML Lightweight Extractor) to generate my XML, it
automatically puts extra space (as seen below) around the values, and
the XSL is no longer matching.

XSL:
<xsl:if test="go_live_date!='null'">
    <td><xsl:value-of select="go_live_date" />&#160;</td>
</xsl:if>

XML:
<project>
                                <number>
                                        1104
                                </number>
                                <title>
                                        Title
                                </title>
                                <department>
                                        0
                                </department>
                                <priority>
                                        1
                                </priority>
                                <description>
                                        Test
                                </description>
                                <go_live_date>
                                        null
                                </go_live_date>
                                <status>
                                        A
                                </status>
                </project>
--

Brian N. Burridge
Internet Architect
(727) 399-3000 Ext 3515
The Internet Group - ITSS
Cox Target Media

"Until a person can say deeply and honestly, "I am what I am today
because of the choices I made yesterday," that person cannot say, "I
choose otherwise."



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