Yesterday President-elect Barack Obama visited the Oval Office for the first time.
Photo: AP, AP
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Barack Obama Visited His White House
// George Bush had to work as a guide
Barack Obama toured the White House
Yesterday U.S. President George Bush led an excursion of the White House for his successor Barack Obama. From that moment on, the most painful period in the life of the 43rd U.S. President began — he will remain the master of the White House for two more months, but he will be practically unable to do anything. Barack Obama declared that he intends to cancel a number of President Bush’s orders in the near future. Foreign counterparts do not take him seriously any more — the EU has already expressed its desire to hold one more G20 summit in 100 days, where lame duck George Bush will be substituted for the real President Barack of Obama.
Yesterday morning Barack Obama took his daughters to school, went to the gym, and then set off from Chicago for Washington — for the first meeting with George Bush after his triumph in the presidential election. The latter expected him to come at 2 p.m. They walked along a colonnade so that journalists could photograph them, and then left for the Oval Office, where they talked without witnesses. The conversation of the two Presidents lasted about two hours. And at that time Lora Bush showed Michelle Obama its future household.
The Presidents did not make any statements —Barack Obama could not allow himself to say anything good about George Bush. No one expected the meeting of the two Presidents to be warm. During the two years of the presidential campaign, George Bush was the main target for all candidates, mainly for Barack Obama. Barack Obama’s campaign was so organized as if he struggled against George Bush, rather than John McCain. The key charge against the Republican candidate boiled down to the fact that he was going to keep on with the incumbent President’s line — Democrats even nicknamed John McCain McSame. And the expression “Bush’s bankrupt policy” was used by Barack Obama and its supporters as a mantra.
The next U.S. President had already been to the White House on several occasions (however, he had never been to the Oval Office). For the first time — as a student, when he and his several companions took a petition to President Nixon. Then, four years ago, becoming Senator, he received an invitation from George Bush along with other new senators. In the book The Audacity of Hope Barack Obama described that meeting in detail. Hardly having caught sight of the young Senator from Illinois, George Bush cried: “Obama, Obama! Come here, meet Lora. Lora, you remember, we saw him on TV on the voting night.” Then, having shaken hands with Senator Obama, President Bush turned to his assistant so that he would sprinkle disinfectant liquid on his palm.
George Bush’s subsequent speech before young senators amazed Barack Obama as well. In his book he wrote, “Initial friendliness was replaced by almost messianic self-confidence. I saw that almost all my Republican colleagues attentively followed his every word. It once again showed me to what dangerous isolation power can lead.”
However, after Barack Obama’s victory George Bush will find himself in even a deeper isolation. First, he is the most unpopular President leaving the White House in the U.S. history: his current approval rating is 27% whereas 66% of Americans are hostile to him. Barack Obama’s rating is 70%, and only 25% of Americans dislike him. George Bush used to have similar ratings too — right after 9/11. The current total disapproval deprives George Bush of the ability to undertake any decisive steps. George Bush is lamest of all previous ducks in the U.S. history.
Ahead of the meeting with his predecessor Barack Obama sent a clear message that his words about the necessity to change the line and “Bush's bankrupt policy” will not remain simply pre-election statements. Head of the Obama transition team, John Podesta, stated that Barack Obama has already started to study carefully presidential decrees signed by George Bush during his eight years in office. Since President Obama can easily cancel them, without consulting Congress, he will start his presidency with it. According to John Podesta, Barack Obama will certainly cancel the ban on stem cell research, introduced by George Bush. Besides, he will forbid oil production in Utah — local environmentalists say that drilling will lead to an ecological catastrophe, and Barack Obama is ready to agree with them.
John Podesta said nothing about cancelling any other more important decrees by George Bush. However it is obvious that this statement was made deliberately: first, it was to prepare George Bush for the forthcoming meeting with his successor. Second, ahead of the G20 summit, Barack Obama showed once again that conducting any negotiations with the incumbent administration is pointless. It is not ruled out that it was a sort of revenge for the George Bush administration’s reluctance to invite Barack Obama’s team to any official events during the summit. Barack Obama stated that “now there can be only one President in the U.S.” and Barack Obama will attend only private dinners with heads of the state. However it becomes clearer that such dinners will be even more important than official meetings.
Last week France, which is chairing the European Union, declared that one more G20 summit, devoted to the world financial crisis, should be held in 100 days after the one planned for November 15, which is in a month after Barack Obama’s inauguration.
During his last speech before his meeting with Barack Obama, George Bush stated that smooth power transition will be the key priority of his remaining months in office. Finishing his speech, the President was about to burst out crying — and, to hide emotions, he buried in his wife Lora’s shoulder.
Later Joshua Bolten, the White House Chief of Staff, confirmed that the incumbent administration has already started moving out. George Bush has two months to do it — any other projects of the ambitious President, who dreamt of becoming another Ronald Reagan, are unlikely to be carried out, mainly because of the new team’s rebuffing. A caricature published in Newsweek shows President Bush asking Vice President Cheney, “So, what did we achieve in the second term?” Vice President answers, “They haven’t issued us impeachment.”
Mikhail Zygar
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 11, 2008
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