Barack Obama arrives at White House for Meeting with President George Bush
Barack Obama and George Bush at the White House. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
President-elect Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, arrived at the White House this afternoon to meet with President George Bush, the latest step in a transfer of power that appears to be progressing notably smoothly less than one week after Obama’s election.
The Obamas, who left their two daughters home in Chicago during the trip, greeted Bush and his wife, Laura, in public view before proceeding into the White House for a private tour and discussion, expected to last about 90 minutes. It is unknown whether either family will take questions afterwards.
The two couples posed for photographs before entering the White House, Mrs Bush in dark brown and Mrs Obama wearing the scarlet-red hue that has become linked with Republicans. The president and his successor were later seen walking towards the entrance to the Oval Office - which Obama has never seen during four years as a senator - talking and gesturing to one another.
Bush first invited Obama to meet on Wednesday, calling the election of the first black US president a “triumph of the American story” and displaying genuine warmth that pleasantly surprised some Democrats.
The comity between the incoming and outgoing chief executives this year is a marked departure from the acrimony of December 2000, when Bill Clinton made way for Bush after the election was decided by the supreme court’s halting of a disputed recount.
Yet Bush and Obama have more than enough reason to be wary of one another during their talks today. Bush’s aides are hastily finishing up a series of controversial regulations expected to be pushed through before he leaves office, and the Obama transition team is working equally hard to unwind Bush-era rules curtailing environmental protections and medical research, among other government policies.
Bush spokeswoman Dana Perino called the meeting “very private”, adding that she expected the incoming and outgoing presidents to meet again before Obama’s inauguration on January 20.
Laura Bush and Michelle Obama are set to tour the White House grounds while their husbands discuss transition issues, according to Anita McBride, the first lady’s chief of staff. “A special part [of the tour], which we know will be important to Mrs Obama, is the bedroom for her two little girls … an historic room where Caroline and John Kennedy were,” McBride told the Voice of America.
- Elana Schor for gaurdian.co.uk
I heard recently that, despite all the perks that come with living in the white house, the first family still has to pay for any food that their private guests consume