Barack and Michelle Obama are to visit the White House today for a sit-down with George & Laura Bush. This is a trap. Forget the fact that Obama should have refused because, to my knowledge, no president-elect has visited the White House before inauguration day - that is usually left up to the first ladies. The real reason to have refused is not precedent, but because Bush is laying a trap. Bush knows, somewhere in his rational consciousness, that he is now the worst president since James Buchanan, notwithstanding all these allusions to Truman and Washington. Therefore, the charm offensive is on. Bush is convinced that his winning, one-on-one personality is going to charm Obama today and make it harder for the new president to say the kinds of things about Bush and his Administration that need saying during the next 6-12 months. Of course it won't effect the parachute teams landing at federal agencies over the next few weeks. They will do their work and make their recommendations. But what Bush is after is the rhetoric. Tone down the anti-Bush language and the public perception that will now be firmly set will be tamped down. Obama will come away thinking Bush is really an OK guy. Yes, a disastrous president, but a charming an affable man who probably meant well. "It was all Cheney's doing", he'll think.
It is important, for the record, the nation, and the hard Obama supporters to hear the truth about the man and his record over the last eight years. I fault Obama for not saying this in much starker language than he did since the convention. Ronald Reagan made Jimmy Carter a pariah for the next 20 years by the tone he set regarding his predecessor during his first years in the White House. It wasn't permissible to have Carter for dinner in polite society. What exactly do the Obama people think is motivating Bush in this invitation and the outstretched hand to offer "all possible assistance"? Because after shredding the Constitution for eight years he now is feeling presidential? Nonsense. This is all an effort to blunt what he knows should be coming. This cozy little group of ex-presidents and their fraternity is supposed to be admirable. They call each other for advice and attend each other's functions. This can't happen with Bush. If Obama treats him as just some well-meaning but failed ex-president, history will not forgive him and I suspect neither will his base.
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