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"When the incoming and outgoing first meet at the White House, the psychological transfer occurs then," thus ABC anchor Charles Gibson quoted former Vice President Walter Mondale. The meeting between lame duck President George Bush and President-elect Barack Obama at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was the lead item on all three newscasts and the Story of the Day--a symbolic rehearsal for Inauguration Day, as it were.

"A potent symbol of democracy," was how NBC's Savannah Guthrie called the meeting, "just six days after a hard fought election." CBS anchor Katie Couric observed that "both men understand the symbolism of these images" and ABC anchor Gibson declared that it was "symbolic." NBC's Guthrie referred to Gibson's Mondale quote without the attribution: "White House visits have become a Presidential rite of passage, a moment some call the 'psychological transfer of power.'" The official White House statement called the Oval Office meeting between the two men "constructive, relaxed and friendly," ABC's Jake Tapper told us, while an unnamed source close to Obama relayed that the successor called the incumbent "gracious." CBS' Chip Reid contented himself with observing that neither man "had any public comment."

The meeting went beyond vacant symbolism, ABC's Tapper added, touching on the distress of the automobile industry and the $700bn federal bailout of the financial sector. Obama intends to use executive orders to reverse several of Bush's executive orders, lifting the ban on federal funds for embryonic stem cell research and reimposing restrictions on energy drilling in public lands. CBS' Reid noted that such reversals "appear to have ruffled feathers" in the current White House. "They cannot complain much because President Bush has used executive orders throughout his administration to put his stamp on a number of policies."


Andrew Tyndall 11/12/08 10:24:06 pm

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