Didn't you think the President would give you a decent lunch, Mitt? Romney drops in to McDonald's just hours before White House meal with Obama

Now that the presidential election campaign is over, losing candidate Mitt Romney has the leisure to spend his time how he likes.



And this week he was spotted picking up a snack in the king of all fast-food joints - McDonald's.



His trip to the popular chain restaurant came ahead of a lunch in the White House with Barack Obama yesterday - a meeting which has already inspired dozens of internet memes speculating on what exactly went on.



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Snack: Mitt Romney was seen ordering a McFlurry milkshake at a branch of McDonald's Power lunch: President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney talk in the Oval Office following their lunch

Visitor: This image shows Big Bird, a focus of satire during the campaign, apparently dropping in on the meeting

The former governor of Massachusetts was photographed apparently buying a McFlurry milkshake, and the picture was then uploaded to social news website Reddit .



While it may seem strange to see the ultra-healthy 65-year-old chowing down on fast food, the Romney family has long had a strong connection to the McDonald's franchise.

Mitt's father George, a businessman who was governor of Michigan, was given a card by McDonald's founder Ray Kroc entitling him to eat at any of the chain's restaurants for free for his whole life.



As well as the picture of Romney in McDonald's, web users have clearly been amused by a photo of the losing Republican presidential candidate shaking hands with Obama in the Oval Office, as Buzzfeed notes.



Awkward? Some commenters speculated about the strained relations between the pair

Who's there? Web users noticed a White House staffer lurking in the background of the photo

Photoshopped versions of the image have spread around the net, with some offering witty guesses about the strained conversation the two men might be enjoying, while others drew attention to the awkward presence of a White House staffer half-hidden behind a door in the background of the picture.

The pair met for lunch at the White House on Thursday, sitting down with an eye on overlapping interests rather than the sharp differences that defined their presidential contest.

In their first meeting since the election, Obama and the Republican nominee met in the White House's private dining room, fulfilling a promise Obama made in his victory speech the night of November 6.

Romney congratulated the president for the success of his campaign and wished him well over the coming four years, according to a description of the meeting from the White House.



Here's Joe! This picture imagines what might have happened if Biden had tried to crash the party

Bitter: But despite the speculation officials insisted that the meeting was friendly and productive

'The focus of their discussion was on America's leadership in the world and the importance of maintaining that leadership position in the future,' according to the description. 'They pledged to stay in touch, particularly if opportunities to work together on shared interests arise in the future.

While they talked politics, the former foes munched on white turkey chili and Southwestern grilled chicken salad.

Romney arrived at the White House early Thursday afternoon in a black SUV. He stepped out of the passenger side and walked into the West Wing alone.

White House spokesman Jay Carney had earlier said Obama had no specific agenda for the meeting, but he said the president wanted to discuss Romney's ideas for making government more efficient. Obama has proposed merging some functions of government related to business and has asked Congress for authority to undertake some executive branch reorganization.

Arrival: Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney arrived at the White House for a lunch with President Obama

Bitter campaign foes just weeks ago, Obama and Romney are now sitting down for lunch with an eye on overlapping interests

'The president noted that Gov. Romney did a terrific job running the Olympics and that that skills set lends itself to ideas that could make the federal government work better, which is a passion of the president's,' Carney said.

Obama aides said they reached out to Romney's team shortly before Thanksgiving to start working on a date for the meeting. The two men were meeting alone in the White House's private dining room, with no press coverage expected.

For Romney, it was a day of closure after a hard-fought campaign.

Romney and Rep. Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin congressman who was his vice presidential running mate, met earlier in the day to talk about the pending fiscal cliff negotiations and other economic challenges facing Washington, a Ryan aide said. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the aide was not authorized to discuss the private discussions.

Lunch: President Obama has invited his former Republican rival Mitt Romney to dine with him at the White House, fulfilling a promise he made to seek guidance from Romney in his second term

A happy Thanksgiving: Romney has kept a pretty low public profile since his defeat on Nov. 6. He is pictured here with his wife, Ann, on Thanksgiving

On a personal level, the pair discussed their families and talked about the harried 12 weeks of the general election campaign.

'I remain grateful to Gov. Romney for the honor of joining his ticket this fall, and I cherish our friendship,' Ryan said in a statement after their meeting. 'I'm proud of the principles and ideas we advanced during the campaign and the commitment we share to expanding opportunity and promoting economic security for American families.'

Much of that debate centers on expiring tax cuts first enacted in the George W. Bush administration. Obama and Romney differed sharply during the campaign over what to do with the cuts, with the Republican pushing for them to be extended for all income earners and the president running on a pledge to let the cuts expire for families making more than $250,000 a year.

The White House sees Obama's victory as a signal that Americans support his tax proposals.

Obama and Romney's sit-down Thursday was expected to be their most extensive private meeting to date. The two men had only a handful of brief exchanges before the 2012 election.

Even after their political fates became intertwined, their interactions were largely confined to the three presidential debates.

Romney has virtually disappeared from politics following his election loss. He's spent the past three weeks largely in seclusion at his family's Southern California home. He has made no public appearances, drawing media attention only after being photographed at Disneyland in addition to stops at the movies and the gym with his wife, Ann.

All smiles: Romney appeared to be having a good time at Disneyland with his sons and grandchildren

Budget impasse: President Barack Obama, right, and top Republican John Boehner, left, met this month to discuss the fiscal cliff but there has been little progress towards a deal

Looking back: The luncheon will be the most extensive meeting that the two men have ever had off the debate stage

Obama aides reached out to Romney shortly before Thanksgiving to start working on a date for the meeting.

'It was a gracious invitation from the president, which Mitt Romney was glad to accept,' a top Romney aide said.

The timing of Obama's meeting appears strategic, coming in the same week that he launched an aggressive campaign aimed at forcing Congress to accept his proposals to avert the fiscal cliff, a series of automatic tax increases and spending cuts that threaten to send the U.S. economy spiraling into a second recession.



The Congressional Budget Office has predicted that if the fiscal cliff is not avoided, the U.S. unemployment rate could rise to 9.1 percent by the end of next year, compared to 7.9 percent now.

Timing: The announcement of Obama's luncheon with Romney came as Obama delivered remarks at the White House, in which he held out a pen and said he is 'ready to sign' a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff

Obama is proposing that Congress end tax cuts for families making more than $250,000 a year, but Republicans are opposed to the idea.

While in Washington, Romney will meet with his former running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, who is working on the Republican side of negotiations.

Pumping gas at his local station in La Jolla, Romney was happy to talk about his California plans

Romney has kept a low profile since his defeat, deliberately avoiding the political spotlight while many in the party distanced themselves from him in the days and weeks after the election, especially after a conference call with donors in which he said Obama won the election because of 'gifts' he bestowed on constituencies like Hispanics, blacks and young people.

Photographs and sightings of Romney's post-election lifestyle reveal that he is relishing a 'normal' existence after the grueling pace of the campaign.

He was spotted attending the movie 'Twilight' with his wife and dining on pizza afterward. He was also photographed at Disneyland on roller coasters with his sons and grandchildren.



A motorist snapped a photo of Romney pumping gas recently and the former Massachusetts governor posted of photo of himself and Ann enjoying Thanksgiving together. Appearing scruffy and unkempt in a blue T-shirt, Romney had his arms wrapped around Ann in their kitchen as she appeared to be cooking.

But it was revealed on Wednesday that Romney might soon be returning to work in the private sector.



Romney's former aides confirmed to the Associated Press that he is expected to move into an office at the Boston-area venture capital firm Solamere Capital, which was co-founded by his eldest son, Tagg, and Spencer Zwick, who served as his campaign's national finance chairman.

He will not be working for Solamere, the Washington Post reports, but simply leasing an office space there.

