World’s most exclusive club doing lunch

President-elect Obama will be the new kid at the lunch table when he sits down with President Bush and all the living former presidents to break bread at the White House on Wednesday afternoon.

And he could probably learn a lot from the assembled group.

{mosads}Obama is also scheduled to sit with Bush for a private meeting in the Oval Office before the other presidents arrive, according to White House press secretary Dana Perino.

Perino said the two men have been in touch amid the ongoing financial crisis and increased violence in the Middle East, but she couldn’t comment on what they or their lunch companions — the world’s most exclusive fraternity — will discuss.

“All of us would love to be flies on the wall and listening to that conversation,” Perino said. “But these are leaders who only understand what it’s like to be in each other’s shoes. And none of us can put ourselves in their shoes.”

The lunch certainly has the potential to be awkward. Obama and Bush have already crossed the first bridge, meeting shortly after an election Obama won by criticizing the president and Republicans at nearly every turn.

Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush made amends years ago, traveling the world doing good deeds.

Former President Jimmy Carter could be the wild card, as he has been extremely biting in his criticism of the current Bush.

Aside from domestic and international crises, however, Perino said the men could talk about life in the White House and raising children in one of the world’s most famous buildings.

“And, obviously, the Obamas are doing a great job of that and got their girls off to school [Monday] in a good fashion,” Perino said. “It looks like they had a good day.”

The transition — the first days on a new job — are another likely point of conversation, and Perino said she thinks Bush and his staff have worked hard to ensure that Obama hits the ground running.

Perino credited Obama transition officials for a “robust effort” to get up to speed, particularly on the issues of national security and the economy.

“The teams have swooped in and are learning everything they possibly can,” she said.

Perino cited existing relationships, like that of outgoing Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and his successor, Rahm Emanuel, saying those bonds have only “deepened” since Obama was elected.

But Obama, the only member of the club who has yet to spend the night in what has been called “the crown jewel of the federal penitentiary system,” might find sentimentality to be the main course.

Bush has spent much of the last month making the farewell rounds, meeting for the last time in his capacity as president with world leaders and on Tuesday receiving his formal farewell from the armed services.

Perino said Tuesday that the Bushes have started the process of packing as they leave the White House forever, and she told The Hill that “wrapping up the presidency has created a lot of mixed emotions.”

“I’m excited about traveling for six weeks with my husband — we’ll spend four weeks in South Africa, two of which will be spent volunteering at a PEPFAR site,” Perino said in an e-mail. “Peter and I haven’t been able to spend much time together during the last seven years, so this will be a great way to find out if I still like him (kidding).”

Perino said she will miss the daily press briefings and the reporters.

She added that she will “desperately miss the president.”

“He’s taught me a lot about life and leadership,” she said. “I’m certainly a better person for having known him. I will also miss all of the teammates I have here, especially those in the press office. We have been through a lot — we just roll from one issue into the next, and we have done it professionally and with humor. I’ve never laughed so much at 6:30 in the morning and I don’t think that I ever will again.”