President-elect Barack Obama praised his election rival, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, at an inaugural eve dinner tonight. (AP photo by Charles Dharapak)
by Mark Silva and updated at 8:55 pm EST
President-elect Barack Obama is out for dinner tonight - a bipartisan dinner tour aimed at making good on a promise of working across the aisle.
Obama's motorcade carried him from Blair House, the guest house across the street from the White House, to the Washington Hilton for a black tie dinner sponsored by the Presidential Inaugural Committee honoring Sen. John McCain, his Republican rival for the presidency.
Obama took the stage at 6:48 pm EST, to "say a few words about an American hero."
He joked that McCain, under the rules of the evening, would get a rebuttal. "We are glad that the days of rebuttals and campaigning are for now behind us," he said, adding the two had been "fierce competitors.''
But, Obama said, "Each of us has the responsibility to usher in a new season of cooperation.''
With a nod to McCain's accomplishments on campaign finance reform, immigration, and the Patients' Bill of Rights, Obama said the senior senator from Arizona and onetime prisoner of war in Vietnam is motivated by "a pure and deeply felt love of this country that comes from the painful knowledge of what can be life without it....
"John is not known to bite his tongue," Obama added, "and If I'm screwing up, he's going to let me know. And that's how it should be because a presidency is just one branch of a broader government by and for the people."
At 7 p.m., Obama hustled out for the next inaugural eve event, a dinner at the National Building Museum honoring retired Gen. Colin Powell, the former secretary of state in the Bush administration who backed Obama.
In the vast hall of the National Building Museum, where Obama will attend the Commander-in-Chief ball after his inauguration, a dinner crowd gathered tonight to honor Colin Powell.
Obama, taking the stage at 7:49 pm, said: "It's easy to slip into superlatives when you talk about Colin Powell,"
He spoke of Powell's "quiet, remarkably consistent loyalty to a set of principles: truth, loyalty and detrmination."
"The lesson he's learned from his own rise is not his own greatness but his nation's greatness," he concluded, finishing a seven- minute speech.
Comments
I've got two words to describe Barack Obama - Class Act.
McCain said in almost every stump speech during the campaign that he knew how to capture Osama Bin Laden and that he would follow OBL "to the gates of hell".
So, perhaps McCain could return the favor that Obama is doing him by revealing his super secret plan? You know, putting "Country First"?
McCain's Bin Laden claim was one of the more ridiculous election promises made by the Republicans in 2008. And it had some pretty stiff competition.
Posted by: Blinky | January 19, 2009 8:22 PM
Did they roast Palin in absentia? Bet McCain would have had some therapeutic fun with that. She definitely cost him the election.
Posted by: DD | January 19, 2009 8:33 PM
The RINO and the Socialist....the making of a historical crash & burn!!
Posted by: Chico | January 19, 2009 8:37 PM
Just a guess, but I don't think Sarah Palin was at the McCain dinner. But she hopefully is being vigilant in Alaska keeping an eye out for the Russians.
Posted by: Flo | January 19, 2009 9:08 PM
BO said he is for killing babys, would not "punish" his daughter with a baby. Do you think he will defend The Constitution or the people?
Posted by: Byrd | January 19, 2009 10:11 PM
>> DD | January 19, 2009 8:33 PM<<
dd try this on.
John McVain could have been elected if he had gotten the conservatives to vote. He could have gotten the conservatives to vote if he had stuck to his 'maverick' persona when the bailout for WS surfaced. Had he voted against it instead of 'go along to get along', the election may have turned out much differently. John McVain was his own worst enemy.
Posted by: Belad | January 19, 2009 10:11 PM
You guys don't let up. Palin kept McCain in the race. She got the base out. It would have been a larger Obama win without her.
In other words, quit getting your news from SNL, the Daily Show, and MSNBC.
Posted by: RS | January 19, 2009 10:18 PM
the absence of Palin proves it is not bipartisan, but inside the Beltway self-congratulation. McCain was a loser and only got the nomination with Democrat votes in Florida and Maine. Some Republican that is. And he lost Maine and Florida.
Posted by: Federale | January 19, 2009 10:29 PM
You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
Posted by: ornery | January 19, 2009 10:31 PM
Oh boy, the Palin Derangement Syndrome group is out again. Hey, DD, you mean to say the Great Obama would have lost to McCain if only Palin were not on the ticket? Wow. And Flo, for someone who wants her to "just go away," you sure do you really continue to obsess about Sarah Palin - even when her name isn't brought up. Let's see what the bitter Obama hate group will have to focus their hatred on next? Hmmm...women, gays, southerners, the military, police, independent thinkers, kool-aid intolerant progressives, carnivores...yep, they're all second class citizens in Obama-land. Take a chill pill people and enjoy inauguration day. Perhaps for one day you can exhibit as much class as you believe Obama has. You can go back to your hate-filled, low class ways on Wednesday.
Posted by: Bemused | January 19, 2009 10:32 PM
I hope that Obama and McCain will continue to work together in the areas where they have common ground. Our country can only benefit from their willingness to put any personal animosity aside in the spirit of bipartisan public service. Thanks to both of them!
Posted by: Laurel Federbush | January 19, 2009 11:16 PM
From some of these postings, it appears they crawled up out of the swamp with their deranged comments about Palin. Actually she got him a whole lot of votes he would not have gotten without her. Rino's are losers.
Posted by: al | January 19, 2009 11:29 PM
Caption Contest:
"Woooah, Junior, that's the bad arm"
Posted by: Teresa | January 20, 2009 1:00 AM
I'm really proud of Barack Obama.
Now, if only his supporters would show the same class towards both Senator McCain and Gov. Palin.
Posted by: Jan | January 20, 2009 6:14 AM
OK, there's McCain, there's Obama. So where is the conservative, and where is the bipartisanship?
Posted by: Anthony | January 20, 2009 6:56 AM
According to what I read, she wasn't invited. According to her mouthpiece, she is too hard at work getting ready for the new legislative session in Alaska that she wouldn't have attended. There is a funny bit about Bush on this website: www.themudflats.net
Posted by: lochnessmonster | January 20, 2009 6:59 AM
Nice response Flo. Another moonbat who gets their news from Saturday Night Live.
Posted by: Kimmy | January 20, 2009 7:24 AM
I just wanted to stir you up Bemused; where were you last week when I was defending Hillary from the trolls during her Senate hearings?? The PUMAS were AWOL.
Posted by: Flo | January 20, 2009 8:14 AM
Well Kimmy, maybe you should watch SNL yourself, and then maybe you'd have a sense of humor. Lighten up--and bemused too.
Posted by: rupert | January 20, 2009 8:34 AM
Uh oh...did anybody check the Smithsonian for a missing Diamond? These guys - putting on a diversion of a political election - were actually a team of world-class jewel thieves.
BOOM, Baby!
Posted by: Good Lt | January 20, 2009 9:27 AM
You can go back to your hate-filled, low class ways on Wednesday.
Posted by: Bemused | January 19, 2009 10:32 PM
As spoken by a voice which brings nothing but anger hate and bitterness to the swamp. Lighten up Bemused, it's a great day. Even Hillary Clinton thinks so.
Posted by: Liz | January 20, 2009 9:45 AM
I do watch SNL Rupert, I'm just not part of the moonbat lunatic fringe that considers it a news source. So lighten up yourself.
Posted by: Kimmy | January 20, 2009 12:25 PM
McCain Never was a conservative anyway. He Should work for Obama, as is being reported, their policies align 100%.
Posted by: Thomas | January 20, 2009 3:07 PM
I agree, McCain should work for Obama, maybe help him out abit in areas he is unsure on.
Posted by: Andy | January 20, 2009 7:36 PM
Caption: MSM Candidates shake hands after bamboozling the American electorate.
The two WORST candidates in my lengthy lifetime. Hussein will be a one-term president, if the democRATS don't completely shred the Constitution within 4 years. They've been trying for 50 years now and making quite some headway.
Posted by: Jarhead68 | January 21, 2009 5:43 PM