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| Barack Obama's lunch invite was an offer Mitt Romney couldn't refuse | Barack Obama's lunch invite was an offer Mitt Romney couldn't refuse |
| (4 months later) | |
| President Barack Obama will host Mitt Romney for lunch on Thursday, the White House has announced, making good on his election-night promise to meet with his defeated rival and discuss ways "to move this country forward". | President Barack Obama will host Mitt Romney for lunch on Thursday, the White House has announced, making good on his election-night promise to meet with his defeated rival and discuss ways "to move this country forward". |
| The White House didn't say when the invitation was issued or how readily it was accepted. The president has not indicated what shape he imagines a co-operation with Romney might take, and the former governor has not expressed an intention to stay in public life. (Romney is expected to move into an office at his son Tagg's Boston-area venture capital firm, Solamere Capital, the Associated Press reported Wednesday, although he is not joining the company.) | The White House didn't say when the invitation was issued or how readily it was accepted. The president has not indicated what shape he imagines a co-operation with Romney might take, and the former governor has not expressed an intention to stay in public life. (Romney is expected to move into an office at his son Tagg's Boston-area venture capital firm, Solamere Capital, the Associated Press reported Wednesday, although he is not joining the company.) |
| The president is locked in two high-profile political tussles – over a way to avoid the fiscal cliff and over Susan Rice, his likely nominee to lead the state department – that have him seeking allies across the aisle. Making nice with Romney, who won about 60.5 million votes in the presidential election, a 47% share, projects the spirit of compromise that Obama is hoping will sweep the Hill. Despite months of butting heads, Obama and Romney have little personal experience of one another. Romney has never served in Washington, where the president has spent the last seven years. Such was Obama's lack of regard for his rival two months ago that he didn't feel the need to prepare for their first debate. | The president is locked in two high-profile political tussles – over a way to avoid the fiscal cliff and over Susan Rice, his likely nominee to lead the state department – that have him seeking allies across the aisle. Making nice with Romney, who won about 60.5 million votes in the presidential election, a 47% share, projects the spirit of compromise that Obama is hoping will sweep the Hill. Despite months of butting heads, Obama and Romney have little personal experience of one another. Romney has never served in Washington, where the president has spent the last seven years. Such was Obama's lack of regard for his rival two months ago that he didn't feel the need to prepare for their first debate. |
| But the new move is trademark Obama. The president has always been quick to apply the old wisdom about keeping your enemies close (see Clinton, Hillary). In fact, the president is meeting at the White House on Wednesday with a crop of CEOs that includes some of Romney's biggest backers. Attending the peace session, Politico reports, are Caterpillar chief Douglas Oberhelman ($27,500 to Romney and the RNC) and AT&T's Randall Stephenson ($35,800). | But the new move is trademark Obama. The president has always been quick to apply the old wisdom about keeping your enemies close (see Clinton, Hillary). In fact, the president is meeting at the White House on Wednesday with a crop of CEOs that includes some of Romney's biggest backers. Attending the peace session, Politico reports, are Caterpillar chief Douglas Oberhelman ($27,500 to Romney and the RNC) and AT&T's Randall Stephenson ($35,800). |
| Former presidential rivals aren't in the habit of hanging out unless they have to, although there is an unlikely exception: John F Kennedy called Richard Nixon a few days after the 1960 election and invited him to lunch. | Former presidential rivals aren't in the habit of hanging out unless they have to, although there is an unlikely exception: John F Kennedy called Richard Nixon a few days after the 1960 election and invited him to lunch. |
| The meeting was arranged by Joseph Kennedy, the president's father, who reached Nixon through former President Hoover. Nixon's reaction is captured by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy, authors of The Presidents Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity: | The meeting was arranged by Joseph Kennedy, the president's father, who reached Nixon through former President Hoover. Nixon's reaction is captured by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy, authors of The Presidents Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity: |
| As Hoover remembered it, Nixon resisted being party to what he called "a cheap publicity stunt," but Hoover threw that right back at him. Newly elected presidents, he informed Nixon, don't need any help getting publicity. "This is a generous gesture on his part, and you ought to meet it. | As Hoover remembered it, Nixon resisted being party to what he called "a cheap publicity stunt," but Hoover threw that right back at him. Newly elected presidents, he informed Nixon, don't need any help getting publicity. "This is a generous gesture on his part, and you ought to meet it. |
| Nixon, characteristically, was leery of some unseen trap. He called former President Eisenhower. | Nixon, characteristically, was leery of some unseen trap. He called former President Eisenhower. |
| Eisenhower was just as blunt. "You would look like a sorehead if you didn't," he said. They talked for a few minutes before another call came in to interrupt dinner; this time, the maître d said, it was Kennedy himself. | Eisenhower was just as blunt. "You would look like a sorehead if you didn't," he said. They talked for a few minutes before another call came in to interrupt dinner; this time, the maître d said, it was Kennedy himself. |
| "I would like to fly down from Palm Beach to have a chat with you – if it won't interfere with your vacation," Kennedy said, and Nixon agreed, even offered to make the trip himself, adding, what were, for Kennedy, the magic words: "After all, that's the proper thing to do in view of last Tuesday's results." | "I would like to fly down from Palm Beach to have a chat with you – if it won't interfere with your vacation," Kennedy said, and Nixon agreed, even offered to make the trip himself, adding, what were, for Kennedy, the magic words: "After all, that's the proper thing to do in view of last Tuesday's results." |
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