Obama, MCCain bury campaign pain for attempt at cooperation

CHICAGO–No longer foes but not yet allies, President-elect Barack Obama and John McCain buried their bitter campaign in public smiles and searched for common ground in private on Monday, discussing possible collaboration on climate change, immigration, Guantanamo Bay and more.

The 40-minute session at Obama’s transition headquarters, their first meeting since Nov. 4 when Obama handily defeated McCain, was just the latest effort by the president-elect to heal wounds from the long and bitter campaign and seek help from his former rivals.

On Thursday, he quietly met here with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, his toughest rival for the Democratic nomination and now a possible choice for secretary of state.

McCain’s meeting with Obama was less furtive, and aides to both men said no Cabinet post is envisioned for the Arizona senator. Obama has said he plans to invite at least one Republican to join his Cabinet.

Like Clinton, McCain knows that returning to the 100-member Senate will impose limits and frustrations after the heady two years of the presidential campaign. For both, a friendly relationship with the new president might open new opportunities in Congress or elsewhere, though they exchanged harsh words with him not long ago.

For Obama, cordial ties to two of the nation’s most famous and successful politicians might smooth the launch of an administration confronting an economic crisis and two wars.

Before Monday’s meeting, Obama said he and McCain would talk about, “how we can do some work together to fix up the country.” He thanked McCain “for the outstanding service he’s already rendered.”

In a joint statement after the meeting, they vowed to work together to reform government and promote bipartisanship in Washington.

Meanwhile, Clinton, who returns to Congress as a fairly junior senator with no immediate prospects for a leadership post, appeared very much in the running for secretary of state. Transition officials said she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, were cooperating with a vetting process, although there were other contenders for the job.

Bill Clinton’s finances and business relationships could pose a conflict of interest for his wife if she became the nation’s top diplomat. Since leaving the White House in 2001, he has amassed a multimillion-dollar fortune and built a large international foundation through his ties to corporations and foreign governments.

As for Obama and McCain, they expressed similar views on a number of issues during the campaign, such as the dangers of climate change and a need to ease U.S. dependence on fossil fuels.

Aides familiar with Monday’s meeting said the two men spoke of working together on that broad issue, as well as on comprehensive immigration revisions, an effort McCain helped to spearhead in the Senate in 2006. The measure collapsed, and Obama will face difficult decisions in how far to push changes in immigration laws in a Congress dominated by Democrats.

They also discussed the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, which both men have criticized and Obama has vowed to close.

Obama also praised a proposal McCain has championed to establish a commission to reform “corporate welfare,” aides said.