Photo by mroczknj

Over the weekend we all excitedly talked about President-elect Barack Obama’s impromptu visit to District mainstay Ben’s Chili Bowl. Goofy as it may seem to outsiders, Obama’s choice of a half-smoke before even officially becoming president speaks volumes to his understanding of the symbolic gulf that has existed between Washington and the District.

The Politico’s Jonathan Martin delved into the two-sided nature of the nation’s capital in an article yesterday, writing about how the Obamas are trying to balance life in official Washington with living in the District. Quoting from the president-elect’s appearance on ABC’s This Week on Sunday:

“One of the things that I don’t like historically about Washington is the way that you’ve got one part of Washington, which is a company town, all about government, and is generally pretty prosperous,” Obama said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” with George Stephanopolous. “And then, you’ve got another half of D.C. that is going through enormous challenges. I want to see if we can bring those two Washington, D.C.s together.”

Martin also notes that the Obamas are looking for a local place of worship. Here’s what Obama had to say:

“It is tougher as president. You know, this is not just an issue of going to church, it’s an issue of going anywhere. You don’t want to subject your fellow church members, the rest of the congregation, to being magged every time you go to church. And so, we’re going to try to be balancing, not being disruptive to the city, but also saying we want to be part of Washington D.C.”

Kind of a staggering difference to George and Laura “We Didn’t Come to Washington to Make New Friends” Bush, isn’t it?