When George Bush and Barack Obama meet at the White House on Monday for what has been called the ”psychological transfer” between them, the moment has potential for considerable awkwardness. Obama has, after all, just appealed to the American people to reject the ”eight years of failed policies” of his host.
But as the pair seek to conduct themselves with grace and dignity, they can comfort themselves in the knowledge that the meeting is likely to be much more successful than that experienced by some of their predecessors.
Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan took the animosity they had shown each other on the campaign trail in 1980 into the Oval office when they met during the transition period. Carter had run TV adverts claiming Reagan was not to be trusted with the nuclear button; Reagan had accused Carter of driving America into depression. The conversation at the White House between the two men began badly. Carter began by attempting to impart his knowledge on national security matters to his successor but Reagan sat there impassively, saying nothing and taking no notes.
The mood deteriorated. ”The day begins early,” Carter warned Reagan. ”A CIA officer briefs you at 7am.”
”Well, he’s sure going to have to wait a long while for me,” Reagan replied.
Carter had his revenge in the dying hours of his presidency when he issued numerous ”midnight regulations” favoured by the Democrats. But even there Reagan had the last laugh; he promptly nullified them.
That frosty encounter was like a wedding celebration compared with the handover from Harry Truman to Dwight Eisenhower in 1952. There was no love lost between these two; Truman once said that the wartime general knew no more about politics ”than a pig knows about Sunday”.
Eisenhower returned the sentiments, so much so that he refused an invitation for lunch at the White House, and continued to shun his predecessor up to inauguration day.
Looking further back, the transition from John Quincy Adams to Andrew Jackson in 1828 was also hostile.
The preceding campaign had been ugly, with Adams attacking Jackson’s wife as a bigamist, and at the end of the row Adams had stormed out of Washington in a rather bad humour.
Relations can be similarly difficult between first ladies, a hazard that must be in Michelle Obama’s mind when she is greeted by Laura Bush on Monday.
Reagan’s slights towards Carter were mirrored by the attitude of Nancy Reagan to Rosalynn Carter. When the two women met at the White House, Nancy gave a ”gentle hint” that the Carters should get out early so she could start decorating.
The transition from Bush to Obama will be the 21st from the president of one party in power to another, since the formation of the US. The first time it happened was in 1801 when the federalist John Adams (Quincy’s father) gave way to the Democratic-Republicans led by Thomas Jefferson. It was not a particularly easy process, taking 36 ballots before the result was achieved and turning Adams and Jefferson temporarily into bitter foes, though they later resumed their close friendship. However, the move established the possibility of peaceful handovers of power between two main parties that have been a cornerstone of American democracy ever since.
On a personal note, too, there have been examples of comity that the present incumbent of the White House and his successor will hope to emulate. Before he met John F Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower, then aged 70, had ridiculed his 43-year-old replacement as a ”young whippersnapper”. But a three-hour meeting between them in the White House changed all that. An aide said Eisenhower emerged from the conversation ”overwhelmed by Senator Kennedy, his understanding of the world problems, the depth of his questions, his grasp of the issues and the keenness of his mind”.
There will be weighty issues of state to discuss when Bush meets Obama, not least the economic crisis and the two wars that the elder man bequeaths the younger in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But there will also be quirkier information to pass along. Eisenhower showed Kennedy how to use a panic button in the White House that summoned a helicopter instantly to the back lawn. In 1968, Lyndon Johnson, following discussions with Richard Nixon that focused on the Vietnam war, then pulled his successor into his bedroom and showed him a safe hidden in the wall. ”I wanted you to know about this.”
Bush has indicated that he wants to follow the example of those presidents who extended the hand of friendship to their successors rather than the barbed word or frigid handshake. Last week, he praised the election of Obama as ”a triumph of the American story, a testament to hard work, optimism and faith in the enduring promise of our nation”.
Of course, Bush also has the benefit of having been in Obama’s position — at the receiving end of a handover. His own ”transition” happened in December 2000, when he met Clinton in the White House. That encounter too had great potential for awkwardness: Bush had campaigned in part to restore ”honour and dignity” to the Oval office, a reference to Clinton’s indiscretions with Monica Lewinsky in that same room.
During a photo call Bush sat notably stiffly in a chair beside Clinton, looking ill at ease, though it was never discovered exactly why.
But disaster never happened. Clinton and Bush went on to talk privately for an hour and dine without incident over curried squash soup and filet mignon. – guardian.co.uk