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gwenPosted:
Mon Nov 10, 2008 1:59 pm
Obama arrives at White House for Bush visit
President-elect, Bush expected to discuss economic crisis, Iraq
WASHINGTON - Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, arrived at the White House Monday for their first visit to the Executive Mansion since Barack Obama won the presidential election last Tuesday.
The visit to the Executive Mansion will feature a photogenic walk along the Colonnade and is expected to give the president-elect his first feel for the place where momentous decisions will soon fall to him.
As the plane landed at Reagan National Airport at 1:22 p.m. EST, Obama's new residence came into quick view from the right side of the airplane. Waiting on the tarmac were transition team leader John Podesta, Robert Gibbs and Marvin Nicholson. For schedule reasons, Michelle Obama traveled separately.
Bush invited Obama for the private talk, a rite of passage between presidents and successors that extends for decades.
The moment is sure to be steeped in history, part of a symbolic changing of the guard to Democratic leadership and the country's first black president. But it will be substantive as well, as Bush and Obama are expected to review the nation's enormous economic downturn and the war in Iraq.
Obama and Bush will be the only ones in the Oval Office when they meet.
White House press secretary Dana Perino said Monday that she could not offer a detailed preview.
"It's just very private," she told reporters at the daily White House news briefing. "And I'm sure that this won't be the only time that they speak."
Pageantry
Obama and his wife, Michelle, arrived at the South Portico, where they were greeted by the president and first lady Laura Bush. They will head into the Diplomatic Reception Room where the Obamas will meet the chief usher of the White House, Perino said.
In a bit of pageantry for the cameras, the president and president-elect walked along the Colonnade and into the Oval Office. The nice pictures, though, might be all people can expect; Bush and Obama are not scheduled to make any public statements during their time together.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Bush will give Mrs. Obama a tour of the first family's living quarters, including the bedrooms used by children of past presidents. Perino said the two women are expected to talk about living in one of the world's most famous building, from family life to the help provided by executive staff.
The Obamas have two daughters: Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7. Obama started his day in Chicago, dropping the two girls at school, each with a kiss, and then going to a gym for a workout.
Ahead of the meeting, Obama told reporters last week that he was headed to the White House meeting with "a spirit of bipartisanship."
Obama won the presidency in an electoral landslide on Tuesday. He ran a campaign in which he relentlessly linked Republican opponent John McCain to Bush and presented his ideas as a fresh alternative to what he called Bush's failed policies.
Yet the tone changed almost immediately after Obama's win.
Bush, who had endorsed McCain, lauded Obama's victory as a "triumph of the American story." He warmly invited the Obama family to the White House.
Obama, in turn, thanked Bush for being gracious. The president-elect has made clear to the people of the United States and those watching around the world that there is only one president for now, and that's Bush. Obama is in the transition to power but does not assume the presidency until Jan. 20.
Josh Bolten, Bush's chief of staff, said Bush and Obama will likely each have a list of issues to go down.
"I know the president will want to convey to President-elect Obama his sense of how to deal with some of the most important issues of the day," said Bolten, interviewed on C-SPAN by reporters from The Associated Press and The Washington Post. "But exactly how he does that, I don't know, and I don't think anybody will know."
Unlike the incoming president, Bush knew his way around the Oval Office by the time he was elected in 2000 — his father had been president. Still, like many before them, President Clinton and President-elect Bush had their own private meeting, keeping up a tradition that temporarily puts the presidency above politics.
Obama has been to the White House before, including an emergency leadership session to deal with the financial crisis in September.
But an Obama spokeswoman said the president-elect has never been in the Oval Office.
9 Dec: Deadline for states to resolve issues such as recounts or challenges.
15 Dec: Electoral college electors meet in each state to formally cast their votes.
3 Jan: The 111th session of Congress begins.
6 Jan: Joint session of Congress to count electoral college votes
Before 20 Jan: Mr Obama and Vice-President-elect Joe Biden
must resign as senators representing Illinois and Delaware respectively. If they do this even earlier
- before 3 January - their successors will have seniority over other incoming senators. Seniority can
impact on committee allocation and office space, among other issues.
20 Jan: Inauguration day. President George W Bush retains full constitutional authority until noon,
when Mr Obama is sworn in.
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gwenPosted:
Mon Nov 10, 2008 2:19 pm
AKA Gagal_05
Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 15275
paxPosted:
Mon Nov 10, 2008 2:21 pm
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Posts: 16336
Location: Wish You Were Here
SavannahStarPosted:
Mon Nov 10, 2008 2:37 pm
First Bush-Obama Meeting: Hard Feelings and Hand Sanitizer
As President Bush and President-elect Barack Obama prepare for their post-election meeting at the White House on Monday,
memories of their first encounter linger.
Bill Sammon
FOXNews.com
Sunday, November 09, 2008
President Bush and President-elect Barack Obama are probably hoping their meeting Monday goes better than their first
get-together, which left a bad taste in the mouths of both men.
Four years ago, Obama and other newly elected members of the Senate were invited to the White House for a breakfast
meeting with Bush, who pulled the young Chicagoan aside.
"Obama!" Bush exclaimed, according to Obama's account of the meeting in his second memoir, "The Audacity of Hope."
"Come here and meet Laura. Laura, you remember Obama. We saw him on TV during election night. Beautiful family.
And that wife of yours -- that's one impressive lady."
The two men shook hands and then, according to Obama, Bush turned to an aide, "who squirted a big
dollop of hand sanitizer in the president's hand."
Bush then offered some to Obama, who recalled: "Not wanting to seem unhygienic, I took a squirt."
The president then led Obama off to one side of the room, where Bush said:
"I hope you don't mind me giving you a piece of advice."
"Not at all, Mr. President," Obama told the commander-in-chief.
"You've got a bright future," Bush said presciently. "Very bright. But I've been in this town awhile and,
let me tell you, it can be tough. When you get a lot of attention like you've been getting, people start
gunnin' for ya. And it won't necessarily just be coming from my side, you understand. From yours, too.
Everybody'll be waiting for you to slip, know what I mean? So watch yourself."
Bush then noted that he and Obama had something in common.
"We both had to debate Alan Keyes," the president said. "That guy's a piece of work, isn't he?"
Obama laughed and even "put my arm around his shoulder as we talked," he recalled, although he added
the gesture "might have made many of my friends, not to mention the Secret Service agents in the room,
more than a little uneasy."
Despite this display of bonhomie, Obama said the president's demeanor turned downright frightening
when he laid out his agenda to the freshly minted lawmakers.
"Suddenly it felt as if somebody in a back room had flipped a switch," Obama wrote.
"The president's eyes became fixed; his voice took on the agitated, rapid tone of someone neither
accustomed to nor welcoming interruption; his easy affability was replaced by an almost
messianic certainty. As I watched my mostly Republican Senate colleagues hang on his every word,
I was reminded of the dangerous isolation that power can bring, and appreciated the Founders'
wisdom in designating a system to keep power in check."
When I quoted from this passage to Bush during an Oval Office interview, the president seemed
irritated to learn he had been taken to task by the senator he once counseled.
I thought I was actually showing some kindness," Bush said indignantly. "And out of that he
came with this belief?"
The president added with a bit of a scowl: "He doesn't know me very well."
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SavannahStarPosted:
Mon Nov 10, 2008 2:38 pm
Did I blow the margins?
Fash, can you fix?
**SuperStar**
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Posts: 21298
Location: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
gwenPosted:
Mon Nov 10, 2008 2:38 pm
AKA Gagal_05
Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 15275
Elaine SPosted:
Mon Nov 10, 2008 2:40 pm
Michelle looks beautiful!
Eline
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
Posts: 5195
Location: Pennsylvania
gwenPosted:
Mon Nov 10, 2008 2:44 pm
Elaine S wrote:
Michelle looks beautiful!
She does. They make a great looking couple!
AKA Gagal_05
Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 15275
gwenPosted:
Mon Nov 10, 2008 3:45 pm
AKA Gagal_05
Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 15275
gwenPosted:
Tue Nov 18, 2008 10:27 pm
November 18, 2008
Bush daughters give tour to Obamas
CNN) — Jenna and Barbara Bush, the president's daughters, personally toured Barack Obama's daughters around the White House Tuesday, a White House spokeswoman said.
The Bush daughters showed Malia and Sasha Obama their future rooms and other parts of their soon-to-be home, according to Sally McDonough, first lady Laura Bush's press secretary.
“Mrs. Bush hosted Mrs. Obama and her family at the White House this afternoon. Barbara and Jenna joined, and they enjoyed showing their rooms to the Obama girls," McDonough said. "The visit lasted approximately one hour.”
CNN) — Jenna and Barbara Bush, the president's daughters, personally toured Barack Obama's daughters around the White House Tuesday, a White House spokeswoman said.
The Bush daughters showed Malia and Sasha Obama their future rooms and other parts of their soon-to-be home, according to Sally McDonough, first lady Laura Bush's press secretary.
“Mrs. Bush hosted Mrs. Obama and her family at the White House this afternoon. Barbara and Jenna joined, and they enjoyed showing their rooms to the Obama girls," McDonough said. "The visit lasted approximately one hour.”
There having an Obama rally near me. Not sure what that means yet, but I'm going to look into it.
Joined: 23 Mar 2006
Posts: 8103
PerryPeabodyPosted:
Thu Nov 20, 2008 10:47 am
gwen wrote:
November 18, 2008
Bush daughters give tour to Obamas
CNN) — Jenna and Barbara Bush, the president's daughters, personally toured Barack Obama's daughters around the White House Tuesday, a White House spokeswoman said.
The Bush daughters showed Malia and Sasha Obama their future rooms and other parts of their soon-to-be home, according to Sally McDonough, first lady Laura Bush's press secretary.
“Mrs. Bush hosted Mrs. Obama and her family at the White House this afternoon. Barbara and Jenna joined, and they enjoyed showing their rooms to the Obama girls," McDonough said. "The visit lasted approximately one hour.”
I think that's lovely. It's like big girls passing something special down to little girls.
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Posts: 1137
gwenPosted:
Fri Nov 21, 2008 7:23 pm
President's daughter Barbara advises Obama girls to stay close to good friends
ABC News' Nightline has landed a truly rare interview.
Barbara Bush, one of the twin daughters of the president and Laura Bush, spoke to Nightline's Cynthia McFadden about the tour she and her sister Jenna helped give to Sasha and Malia Obama when the younger girls visited the White House for the first time this week. And Barbara, who along with her sister has rarely spoken to the news media, said she has this advice for the Obama girls:
"When they move, just make really good friends and surround themselves with people that will protect them because they love them, regardless."
"We were lucky" she continued. "We had great friends in Texas, and we were talking with them, and Malia has really good friends that are in fifth grade with her and at home, so they're going to come visit her. I mean, they'll be fine. They're really cute, smart girls."
The Bush twins turn 27 on Tuesday. Malia Obama is 10. Sasha is 7.
McFadden interviewed the first lady and Barbara for a segment that will air on tonight's show. It goes on the air at 11:35 p.m. ET.
Laura Bush on Michelle Obama's WH Visit
Laura Bush in Her First Interview Since the Obama Daughters Visited White House
By CYNTHIA McFADDEN
PANAMA CITY, Panama, Nov. 21, 2008
First lady Laura Bush said today that Michelle Obama did not ask for advice when she visited the White House recently with her two daughters.
Instead they discussed closets.
"[What] we talked about was what any women would talk about as one is moving out of a home and somebody is moving in," the first lady told "Nightline."
The White House, she noted, has great closets.
Traveling to Panama for her last solo foreign trip as first lady, Laura Bush gave her only television interview to "Nightline." In a candid and wide-ranging interview to air Monday night, she talked about a range of issues, including her meeting with Michelle Obama and her daughters, Malia and Shasha.
One of Mrs. Bush's twin daughters, Barbara, accompanied her mother on the trip to Panama and also agreed to a rare interview.
"It was great," said Barbara Bush of the Obama girls visit. "They're really sweet, and they're excited, but they also have the same concerns that we had when we were 18 when our dad became president.
"I mean, it's a huge adjustment, and they're not used to Secret Service, and they're not -- and they're switching schools, and they have to make new friends. I mean, we felt ... people feel like that regardless of how old they are. So it was really fun to get to meet them and to get to see them being excited about their move, and to get to talk to them about the same things that we had to deal with, regardless of age."
Barbara said she and her sister, Jenna, showed the Obama girls the bedrooms they occupied as first daughters.
She and Mrs. Bush both said they imagined the Obama girls would select the same rooms that the Bush girls had chosen for themselves. They were the "obvious" children's rooms, said Mrs. Bush.
Asked what her advice to the Obama girls would be, Barbara Bush said, "I think my advice to them is just when they move, just make really good friends and surround themselves with people that will protect them because they love them, regardless."
"We were lucky," she continued. "We had great friends in Texas, and we were talking with them, and Malia has really good friends that are in fifth grade with her and at home, so they're going to come visit her. I mean, they'll be fine. They're really cute, smart girls. "
Laura Bush's Advice to Michelle Obama
Mrs. Bush reflected on her own children's lives.
"We really wanted Barbara and Jenna to be able to have a totally normal life, to not take advantage of the so-called podium that they might have, because we wanted them to get to be high school, college-age kids, which they were when we moved there," she said.
"So it's, you know, it's really a balance as you work through the whole idea of how your family can accommodate the publicity and the klieg lights that are on the president of the United States."
Mrs. Bush said if she was asked for advice, she would urge anyone occupying the White House with children to "err on the side of privacy for children. I think it lets children grow up and make childish mistakes, which, of course, they will out of the limelight. And I think that's really the best."
Watch Cynthia McFadden's interview with first lady Laura Bush Monday on "Nightline" at 11:35 p.m. ET.
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