By Jonathan Allen, CQ Staff

President Bush and President-elect Barack Obama — two of the 43 members of the nation’s most elite fraternity — met Monday for the first time since Obama won the right to succeed Bush on Nov. 4.

The current and future commanders in chief, and their wives, Laura Bush and Michelle Obama, gathered at the White House in a traditional rite that occurred sooner after the election than it has in the past.

Despite a contentious campaign season in which Obama hammered Bush’s policies and the unpopular Bush withdrew from the limelight to limit his drag on fellow Republican John McCain , the two men, wearing similarly shaded blue ties, were all smiles and handshakes for the photo opportunities provided as the Obamas arrived at the White House and as Obama and Bush walked to the Oval Office.

Laura Bush gave Michelle Obama a tour of the vast presidential residence while their husbands discussed the leadership of the free world privately.

A statement issued by the Obama transition team said the two men “had a broad discussion about the importance of working together throughout the transition of government in light of the nation’s many critical economic and security challenges.”

Overall, the Obamas spent less than two hours at the famous address that will become theirs for at least four years.

Obama, whose final margin of victory is still being tallied both in terms of popular vote and the electoral college, will become the nation’s 44th president — he is the 43rd man elected to the office, as Grover Cleveland held it in nonconsecutive terms in the latter part of the 19th century — on Jan. 20.

He will assume the presidency with the nation’s troops in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan and the domestic economy in recession. The task ahead of Obama appears to have been a catalyst in Bush’s decision to invite him to the White House so soon after the election and to encourage his administration to work with Obama’s incoming team.

“We face economic challenges that will not pause to let a new president settle in. This will also be America’s first wartime presidential transition in four decades. We’re in a struggle against violent extremists determined to attack us — and they would like nothing more than to exploit this period of change to harm the American people,” Bush told employees of the Executive Office of the President last week. “So over the next 75 days, all of us must ensure that the next president and his team can hit the ground running.”

A co-chair of Obama’s transition team, longtime family friend Valerie Jarrett, told NBC’s Tom Brokaw much the same thing on Meet the Press on Sunday.

“Given, really, the daunting challenges that we face, it’s important that President-elect Obama is prepared to really take power and begin to rule day one,” Jarrett said. “So we will be working closely with his administration.”