Obama off to the Oval Office

2008-11-10 14:01

Washington - US president-elect Barack Obama sets foot in the Oval Office for the first time on Monday when he meets the outgoing George W Bush to discuss the transition of power, at a time when the country is mired in a deep economic slump and fighting two wars overseas.

Bush invited Obama for the private sit-down talk, a rite of passage between presidents and successors that extends for decades.

The moment is sure to be steeped in history, as the country's first black president prepares to take office on January 20 with Democrats firmly in control of the White House and both houses of Congress.

Bush and Obama are expected to review the nation's enormous economic downturn and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I'm going to go in there with a spirit of bipartisanship, and a sense that both the president and various leaders of Congress all recognise the severity of the situation right now and want to get stuff done," Obama said last week when asked about his meeting with Bush.

List of issues

Josh Bolten, Bush's chief of staff, said Bush and Obama will be the only ones in the room when they meet.

"I'm sure each of them will have a list of issues to go down," Bolten said, interviewed on C-SPAN by reporters from The Associated Press and The Washington Post. "But I think that's something very personal to both of them. 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. But exactly how he does that, I don't know, and I don't think anybody will know."

Obama and wife, Michelle, are set to arrive at the White House on Monday afternoon. Bush and first lady Laura Bush will greet them.

In a bit of pageantry for the cameras, the president and president-elect are to walk along the Colonnade and into the Oval Office.

Mrs Bush and Mrs Obama will meet privately, too.

Obama has been to the White House before, including an emergency leadership session to deal with the financial crisis in September.

But an Obama spokesperson said the president-elect has never been in the Oval Office.

- AP