US President-elect Barack Obama and his former rival John McCain have agreed to jointly take on "government waste and bitter partisanship" to
CHICAGO: Promising to "change the bad habits of Washington," US President-elect Barack Obama and his former rival John McCain have agreed to jointly take on "government waste and bitter partisanship" to bring back prosperity for every hardworking American.
In a joint statement issued after their first fence- mending meeting since the November 4 watershed election, Obama, a Democrat and McCain, his Republican rival in the presidential poll, said they hoped to work together on challenges such as the financial crisis, creating a new energy economy and protecting the country's security.
"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 hardworking American family," the statement said.
The two leaders met on Monday at Obama's transition headquarters here in Chicago, Illinois. Obama and McCain were accompanied by advisers Rahm Emanuel and Lindsey O Graham respectively.
"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," they said.
Obama, the first black-American President-elect, would assume office on January 20, 2009. He will succeed incumbent George W Bush.
Shortly before the meeting got under way, Obama was quoted as saying by US media that he and McCain were going to "have a good conversation about how we can do some work together to fix up the country."
The 47-year-old Democrat said he planned to thank McCain, the 72-year-old Vietnam War veteran, for his service to the country.
Asked whether he would help Obama with his administration, McCain responded, "Obviously."
The high-profile meeting comes as Obama is trying to fill out his Cabinet with the most capable people and show he can reach across party lines to fix the tottering economy.
In Obama's first television interview since the election, he told CBS' "60 Minutes" that the global economic crisis provides an opening for the Democrats and Republicans to come together.
"You actually have a consensus among conservative, Republican-leaning economists and liberal, left-leaning economists. And the consensus is this: that we have to do whatever it takes to get this economy moving again, that we're going to have to spend money now to stimulate the economy," Obama had said on the programme.
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