The last time it happened, in May 2012, President Barack Obama and his immediate predecessor, George W. Bush, joked around in the East Room and celebrated the unique burdens of office as a kind of bond, one uniting “the only people on Earth who know the feeling,” the Democrat said. Bush joked about the crowd size “at my hanging” and quipped to Obama that he was pleased “that when you are wandering these halls as you wrestle with tough decisions, you will now be able to gaze at this portrait and ask, what would George do?”