It’s What Grown-ups Do

By Phil Ponce | Published November 30, 2012

I was fascinated to see the picture of President Obama and Mitt Romney when they met for lunch yesterday at the White House.  One can only imagine what Romney was thinking as he posed with the president in the Oval Office.

It’s hard to forget that there appeared to be no love lost between the two during the campaign itself.  At one point, President Obama was quoted as saying that Romney was a “bull*******” and the White House did not refute the report.  And Romney’s comments after the election about the president having “bought” the election reflected no great affection for Mr. Obama, either.

Even so, the two men had lunch and later said they would stay in touch.  Was it window dressing or a real exchange of ideas about “leadership” as the White House later reported?  Who knows?  And, to my mind, who cares?

It’s the optics of the situation that matter to me:  after a contentious campaign it is helpful to have the combatants break bread — even if they don’t love each other.  And if they can put a good face on things and be civil to each other, then maybe the rest of the country can do the same.  After an election like the one we just had, I’ll take good window dressing over a brick through a window any day.

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  • http://willyvon1-willyswill.blogspot.com William von Rentzell

    Now if only the Republicans can resist the oil industry pressures and cooperate with the Democrats (assuming they can resist as well) to maintain our Federal support for research into ways to eventually end our dependence on fossil fuels for energy so we can grow domestic sustainable energy jobs and more importantly, continue to survive on Earth as a species. I hear a lot of nay sayers about the economics of expense vs gain being a problem with anything the Federal budget includes. What would they have to say about all the many industries that grew out of our Federal investment in going to the moon? You know little things like Velcro, duck tape and most of Silicon valley etal.

  • Terry Belanger

    Window dressing, but you are correct- who cares?

  • John Hahn

    “What we have here is a failure to communicate.”