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A century-old ritual: Michelle Obama tours Executive Mansion
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-11 11:34 WASHINGTON -- President-elect Barack Obama's wife, Michelle, visited the White House living quarters Monday, led through the Executive Mansion's 33 rooms by someone who knows them well, first lady Laura Bush, a resident for nearly eight years.
"She took her for a full spin," Bush's spokeswoman Sally McDonough said of the tour, which lasted about an hour. "They went in every single room. They spent time talking about their children and life at the White House." Michelle Obama and her daughters toured the White House after her husband was elected to the Senate in 2004, but she had no inkling then that she would someday live there. Now, she's just weeks from moving in. Laura Bush's personal tour included the famed Lincoln Bedroom, which she helped renovate, as well as where her daughters, Jenna and Barbara, lived. Having called the White House home for eight years, the first lady has put her imprint on nearly every part of the private residence. She told Michelle Obama she was free to bring in her own furniture or switch out what was there, and reassured her that she could "really make the girls' rooms their rooms," McDonough said. "The place is a museum," said Doug Wead, a former aide to President George H.W. Bush and author of a book on presidents' kin. "The principle rule: The higher up you go in the White House, the greater the freedom to redecorate and change," he said, referring to upper floors of the private quarters. During her visit to Washington, Michelle Obama checked out at least two of the city's top private schools for daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7. They now attend a private school in Chicago. She also met privately in the Map Room with Adm. Stephen Rochon, director of the executive residence and chief usher. "After the tour, the first lady and Mrs. Obama visited in the West Sitting Hall where they discussed raising daughters in the White House as Jenna and Barbara Bush were similar in age to Malia and Sasha when they visited their grandfather, President George H.W. Bush, during his presidency," said Stephanie Cutter, spokeswoman for the Obama-Biden transition. |
