Home Sweet Hotel Suite for Obamas in the Capital

[SoCalDem]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/31/us/politics/31obama.html?ref=politics

Home Sweet Hotel Suite for Obamas in the Capital



By PETER BAKER
Published: December 30, 2008

WASHINGTON — Even in a town where the hotels are swamped for the inauguration, it turns out to be possible to get a room if you’re the one being inaugurated.


President-elect Barack Obama and his family will move to the capital this weekend in time for his daughters to start school, aides said Tuesday. With the White House still occupied and the official guest residence unavailable, the future first family will hole up in one of the city’s most exclusive hotels. The decision to come to Washington early will increase the spotlight on Mr. Obama as he tries to prepare for the presidency without yet assuming its burdens. Except for an afternoon visit with President Bush at the White House on Nov. 10, Mr. Obama has stayed away from Washington during the transition, spending his time in Chicago and Hawaii instead.

Mr. Obama, who wraps up his Oahu vacation on New Year’s Day, will hold meetings in Washington next week on how to revive the faltering economy, according to the transition officials, who insisted on anonymity to discuss unannounced plans. Mr. Obama will arrive just before the new Congress is sworn in Tuesday and begins work on the economic package he wants to sign after he is inaugurated Jan. 20. Mr. Obama will attend a White House luncheon on Wednesday to which Mr. Bush has invited every former president. Although Mr. Obama served in the Senate for the last four years, he spent little time out of session in Washington and never moved his family from Chicago.

Other new presidents have waited until closer to their inaugurations before arriving. Jimmy Carter came the day before his swearing in and Ronald Reagan six days before his. Bill Clinton staged a daylong trip to Washington three days before his ceremony, retracing the route Thomas Jefferson took from his home outside Charlottesville, Va.


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