Barack Obama meets with President Bush and past presidents in the Oval Office on Wednesday.

CNN’s Candy Crowley and Kyra Phillips

Candy Crowley: I think that right now, especially this week and next, we need to kind of look at things as part of the sales job. What Barack Obama needs to do and needs to do quickly is get that stimulus bill passed and on his desk.

Candy Crowley: So what are the things that he is hearing, what are the things that are bubbling up in terms of concerns about it. Well, one of them is, the government is over a trillion dollars in debt, that is the forecast of the deficit, and what he is doing today, is not just fulfilling a campaign promise, and he did talk about the CPO, this particular position, not just fulfilling that, but saying, I am looking at the deficit, its ok, I have things in place for midterm and long term which will bring government spending, and here is the head of my team. Timing is pretty interesting for the CPO and I think we have to look at it as part of the sales job.

Kyra Phillips: Ok, and of course the economy. What did Obama say about that today. I understand that it was a news conference.

Candy Crowley: Yeah, well in addition to announcing his choice for CPO, he also talked an awful lot, and said it a couple times, ‘we are going to have over a trillion dollar deficit, before I spend anything.’ Also, he also used the word ‘dire’ to talk about the economic situation right now in the country, and I think over the past few days we have seen a continuation of what actually we saw right after in this speech that Obama gave when he won the presidency which is a kind of a lowering of expectations. There is so much hope, so many people so excited, and he has for the past couple of days said, ‘you know, we aren’t going to be able to get this done right away’, today was all about, ‘you understand, that we have a deficit, that is already going to be over a trillion dollars’.

Candy Crowley: So I think that there is an effort here, even as he is about to be inaugurated and bring a million and million and half, however many people to Washington to watch it, to say, ‘ok, but lets be realistic about what can be done’.

Kyra Phillips: Ok, lets be realistic about this lunch. Apparently, that Obama is huddling with President Bush and three other presidents, what do you think he will get out of this? Is it more ceremonial, you think he will be picking Jimmy Carters brain about Israel and Gaza and picking the Bush’s brain about the war in Iraq?

Candy Crowley: Well, if we are to believe what we were told this was going to be about, its hard to believe that these men, certainly the most exclusive and powerful club in the world, would sit down and not talk about what’s going on in Gaza and what is going on isn this country, vis-à-vis, the economy. I think that again this is something that substantively, these are people who have been there done that, and they certainly can talk about things both large and small. But let’s remember another one of Barack Obama’s campaign promises and that is, “I will reach out wherever I can find ideas and I will work across the isle.’ And there he is, with the torch being passed from a conservative Republican president, to Barack Obama surrounded by both Republican and Democratic presidents. So I think you have to look at the political symbolism as well as what he might get out of it.