Obama and McCain meet for first time since election
Former campaign rivals President-elect Barack Obama and Senator John McCain met today to discuss working together in the future in their first meeting since the bitter election race.
The two met in Mr Obama's transition headquarters in Chicago to discuss ways to reduce US government waste, promote bipartisanship and find other ways to improve government.
Mr Obama said before the meeting that he and Mr McCain planned "a good conversation about how we can do some work together to fix up the country, and also to offer thanks to Senator McCain for the outstanding service he's already rendered."
Mr Obama and Mr McCain sat together for a brief photo opportunity with reporters, along with Rahm Emanuel, Mr Obama's incoming White House chief of staff, and Senator Lindsey Graham, Mr McCain's close friend.
Mr Obama and Mr McCain were heard briefly discussing American football, and Mr Obama cracked that "the national press is tame compared to the Chicago press."
When asked if he planned to help the Mr Obama administration, Mr McCain replied: "Obviously."
After the meeting, Mr Obama and Mr McCain issued a joint statement saying: "At this defining moment in history, we believe that Americans of all parties want and need their leaders to come together and change the bad habits of Washington so that we can solve the common and urgent challenges of our time.
"It is in this spirit that we had a productive conversation today about the need to launch a new era of reform where we take on government waste and bitter partisanship in Washington in order to restore trust in government, and bring back prosperity and opportunity for every hard-working American family," it said.
"We hope to work together in the days and months ahead on critical challenges like solving our financial crisis, creating a new energy economy, and protecting our nation's security."
Mr Obama and Mr McCain clashed bitterly during the autumn campaign over taxes, the Iraq war, and ways to fix the ailing economy. Mr McCain also ran adverts comparing Mr Obama to celebrities Britney Spears and Paris Hilton and raising questions about his rival's distant relationship with a 1960s-era radical, William Ayers.
Mr Obama's campaign, meanwhile, labelled his 72-year-old rival "erratic" and ran a campaign ad falsely suggesting that Mr McCain and Rush Limbaugh shared similar anti-immigration views.
Mr McCain delivered a gracious concession speech on election night, paying tribute to Mr Obama's historic ascendancy as the nation's first black president. The two agreed that night to meet after the election when Mr McCain called Mr Obama to concede defeat.
Mr Obama, who resigned his Senate seat yesterday, has been interviewing some of his one-time political opponents to help him run the country, but advisers to the former candidates have said they don't expect him to consider Mr McCain for an administration job when the new president takes office on January 20.
Meanwhile, Mr Obama said in his first television interview since his historic election that Americans should not worry about the growing federal deficit for the next couple of years and also urged help for the car industry.
In the CBS interview, Mr Obama also said that as soon as he takes office he will work with his security team and the military to phase out US troops in Iraq, shore up Afghanistan and "stamp out al-Qaida once and for all".
Mr Obama confirmed reports that he intends to close the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, and "make sure we don't torture" as "part and parcel of an effort to regain America's moral stature in the world".
