Less than one week after his election victory, Barack Obama will get his first look at the Oval Office as president-elect.
His talks with President Bush will take place behind closed doors. This will be their first substantive conversation since the hard-fought 2008 campaign came to an end with the election of the first African-American president of the United States.
Throughout the long contest, Senator Obama frequently criticized President Bush, much as his Republican opponent, Senator John McCain, slammed the views and experience of the Democratic Party nominee.
But now that the election is over, everyone is promising to cooperate to make the transition from one administration to the next as seamless as possible.
Mr. Obama says America expects nothing less.
"This speaks to a fundamental recognition that, here in America, we can compete vigorously in elections and challenge each other's ideas, yet come together in service of a common purpose when voting is done," he said. The economy is likely to top the agenda for the discussions between the 43rd President of the United States and the man who will become the 44th.
National security is also expected to play a prominent role in the talks. This is the first presidential transition in 40 years to take place while the nation is at war. And President-elect Obama has already started to receive the sort of detailed intelligence briefings usually reserved for the commander-in-chief.
While the meeting in the Oval Office is underway, Senator Obama's wife, Michelle, will be getting a tour of the executive mansion from First Lady Laura Bush. Mrs. Bush's chief-of-staff, Anita McBride, says they will look at both the public areas and the private family quarters, including the room generations of presidential children have called their own. "A special part, 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, where the Johnson girls were, Amy Carter, and Jenna and Barbara [Bush] and Chelsea [Clinton]," she said. The visit is expected to last about 90 minutes. The Obama family moves into its new home on Inauguration Day.
