Jay Carney swears White House meeting with Obama and Bush won't be weird

Former President George W. Bush has stayed away from the White House and saying much about the presidency since leaving the post four years ago.

His successor, President Barack Obama, has not been so hesitant in speaking ill about Bush and the previous administration. The current president has found a way to blame his predecessor for everything from the economy to the recent GSA scandal to losing "our way as a country" after President Bill Clinton left office.

Despite the seemingly bad blood, The Hill reports that White House Press Secretary Jay Carney says the mood will not be awkward when President Obama meets former President Bush in the White House Thursday to unveil the forty-third president's official portrait.

“Not at all,” White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters on Wednesday. “I know the president looks forward to it.”

Mentioning the book The Presidents Club, Carney said that while there are differences between the two leaders' policies, “There is a community here with very few members that transcends political and policy differences.

“I think the spirit represented by that book ... is what will be represented here,” he said.

The Associated Press notes that Bush appeared with President Obama last year at New York's ground zero to recognize the September 11 terrorist attacks ten years later, and again along with former President Bill Clinton in the Rose Garden following the devastating Haiti earthquake in January 2010.

Bush spokesman Freddy Ford told AP that George and Laura Bush were "looking forward to seeing a lot of their friends from the administration and they are grateful to the President and First Lady for their hospitality."