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WASHINGTON, D.C.: Barack Obama and his family were to
spend their first full day in the US capital Sunday after the
President-elect arrived here in time for him to work on an urgent
economic recovery plan and for his daughters to start school.
After less that 48 hours in their
south Chicago home following their luxury Hawaii Christmas vacation,
the President-elect’s wife Michelle and their daughters Sasha, 10,
and Malia, 7, flew to Washington, D.C. late Saturday, a transition
aide said.
Obama, two weeks before the 44th
American president will be sworn in on January 20, is to join his
family Sunday. They are moving temporarily into the historic
Hay-Adams Hotel in downtown Washington, D.C., which overlooks their
new home at the White House on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
It was unclear why the family
were traveling separately.
Sasha and Malia are set to begin
classes Monday (Tuesday in Manila) at the exclusive Sidwell Friends
School, as dad Obama heads to meetings on Capitol Hill to hammer out
the final points of a recovery package in a bid to turn around the
country’s crumbling economy.
The private, Quaker-run Sidwell
has long been the choice for presidential offspring—the school
counts former President Bill Clinton’s daughter Chelsea and
President Richard Nixon’s daughters among its well-heeled alumni.
Luxury lifestyle
Before moving to the
president’s official guest home, Blair House, on January 15, the
Obama family can enjoy their transition to the Beltway in style –
they are expected to stay in one of the hotel’s luxury
$6,000-a-night suites.
Built in 1928, the luxury
residence is separated from the White House only by Lafayette
Square, a grassy square block.
After their 13-day getaway at a
$9-million rental home in Kailua, Hawaii, the Obama family can
expect similar world-class luxury at the Hay-Adams, which has rooms
with direct and unobstructed view of the White House.
Its lavish room amenities include
custom Italian bed linens and towels, goose down duvet and pillows,
a Bose CD system with CDs, Fiji water and Etro toiletries.
Hotel ghost legend
The Hay-Adams hotel, which was
opened in 1928, even comes with its own ghost legend.
The price for a night in one of
the hotel’s 145 rooms, including 20 suites, ranges from $395 to
$6,000 a night. The rooms come with marble bathrooms, three
telephones, digital temperature control, an elaborate stereo system
and carved plaster ceilings.
The more luxurious rooms are
equipped with a fireplace and a balcony, with an unobstructed view
of the future workplace of President-elect Obama.
The hotel, with Italian drapes
and towels, also offers hypo-allergenic pillows to accommodate the
needs of customers suffering from asthma, like Obama’s daughter,
Malia.
Historic hotel
The hotel is named after famous
19th century figures who once lived in mansions at the same site:
John Hay, private assistant to President Abraham Lincoln and later
secretary of State, and Henry Adams, writer and descendant of US
Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams.
According to a Washington legend,
the hotel is haunted by Henry Adams’ wife, Marian “Clover”
Adams, who committed suicide in 1885 after suffering bouts of
depression.
The melancholy ghost, so the
legend goes, appears in the month of December, around the date of
Clover Adams’ death.
Ghost folklore has hotel staff
seeing doors mysteriously opening, clock radios suddenly turning on
and off and housekeepers hearing the sound of a woman crying softly.
A housekeeper has supposedly heard her ask, “What do you want?”
Busy schedule
But the president-elect may be
too buy to explore all that.
Obama is expected to meet
congressional leaders on Monday (Tuesday in Manila) on his proposal
for the new economic stimulus plan.
Obama will talk with two top
Democrats in Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid, and he also hopes to meet with Senate
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader John
Boehner, the CNN quoted congressional sources as saying on Friday.
The president-elect’s staff
contacted McConnell’s office about the meeting but the time and
location have not been buttoned down.
As House Democratic aides said
Pelosi would like to move a stimulus bill through the House by the
second week in January, Republican leaders including McConnell and
Boehner expressed concerns this week about the size of the economic
rescue effort and whether oversight of the plan will suffer because
of Democrats’ ambitious timeline.
White House dinner
In fact, Obama’s agenda may be
too stacked in the run up to his January 20 inauguration for him to
relax too much.
President Bush has invited Obama
to a White House lunch Wednesday, along with former Presidents Bill
Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter.
The president-elect and members
of his incoming administration are also expected to collaborate
closely with Congressional leaders in the coming weeks, as they work
on a multibillion-dollar economic stimulus plan Democrats hope to
pass shortly after Obama takes office.
And the ongoing ground and air
assault by Israel on the Gaza Strip will also likely press on the
president-elect’s time, although he has so far declined to comment
on the situation.
“The president-elect is closely
monitoring global events, including the situation in Gaza,” said a
spokeswoman, adding that there is “one president at a time and we
intend to respect that.”
Apart from a November 10 White
House meeting with President George W. Bush, Obama has largely
avoided Washington, D.C. since his historic election as the first
African-American US president on November 4. Most of his time during
the transition period was spent in Chicago.
--AFP With Xinhua
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