Obama visits White House, meets with Bush

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Plenty of tension points
These White House sessions hare designed to put the presidency above politics, temporarily at least. This year’s took place less than a week after Election Day, giving less time than usual for raw campaign words to fade.

But both Bush and Obama have set a tone of graciousness and cooperation that has surprised — and pleased — many observers.

Obama has shown no inclination for gloating. And Bush has been notably generous in his comments since the election.

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On a practical — and sober — level, Obama is taking office with the economy in deep turmoil and two wars that are far from won, among other problems.

Comity aside, there are plenty of tension points.

Bush and Obama met as the main transition news of the day was the Democratic team’s preparations to rescind many of the incumbent’s executive orders. Podesta said Obama’s aides were poring over all of them and will make such reversals among the new president’s first acts.

“We need to get off the course that the Bush administration has set,” Podesta said, delivering a concrete rebuke of Bush only about 24 hours before the two men sat down together.