The President, who ate his challenger’s lunch on November 6, is repaying the social obligation with a White House meal today, thus confirming Tea Party fears that they had the wrong candidate this year.

In their view, the loser should not be breaking bread with Barack Obama but still breaking heads. (Four years later, John McCain is showing how it’s done.)

Soon after the election, the President noted that Romney “did a terrific job running the Olympics…That skill set of trying to figure out how to make something work better applies to the federal government…

“He presented some ideas during the course of the campaign that I actually agree with. And so it’d be interesting to talk to him.”

Significantly, Romney’s running mate Paul Ryan won’t be joining them at the table. He’s too busy trying to make Democrats eat crow on the fiscal cliff.

If the former foes savor irony, one subject over lunch could be the new Gallup Poll showing that a majority of Americans now want the federal government to stay out of healthcare coverage, backing one of Romney’s campaign contentions.

Then again, until the very end, Gallup kept predicting that Romney would be hosting White House lunches next year.

MORE.