A look at past meetings between presidents and their successors

Donald Trump and Barack Obama weren't running against each other in 2016, but they may as well have, given the sharp attacks each leveled at the other on the campaign trail.

Yet on Thursday, with the campaign over, the president sat down with the president-elect in the Oval Office, where Obama said the two had an "excellent conversation."

Obama says he and Trump had 'excellent conversation'

Like what's occurring now, the last three presidential transitions have featured a president of one party handing over the reins to an election victor from the other. Despite the obvious awkwardness attendant to any sit down between two people who have been sharply critical of each other, civility always prevails. Here's a look back:

2008: Barack Obama and George W. Bush

Obama, a U.S. senator from Illinois, ran as a candidate of hope who would represent a sharp change from the past eight years of the Bush administration, which he denounced on the campaign trail. Among his signature campaign issues was that he'd opposed the 2003 Iraq war from the start.

The week after Obama's historic election as the nation's first African-American president, he met with Bush at the White House, and the

Dana Perino, then the White House press secretary, said that President Bush had called the meeting "good, constructive, relaxed and friendly."

The day after this year's election, Obama cited the transition efforts by the outgoing Bush administration in 2008-2009 as a model for how he wanted his staff to operate.

2000: George W. Bush and Bill Clinton

This meeting, held on Dec. 19, 2000, was, of course, delayed due to the extended recount in Florida that was not resolved until well into December when Bush finally emerged the victor over Al Gore, Clinton's vice president.

Bush, then the Texas governor, had vowed during the campaign 'to restore honor and dignity'' to the White House, in a clear reference to Clinton's extramarital relationship with Monica Lewinsky, which led to impeachment. What's more, Clinton had defeated Bush's father eight years earlier.

In the Oval Office, though, the new president-elect had warm words for the man he would soon replace.

"I am humbled and honored, and I can't thank the president enough for his hospitality," Bush said. "He didn't need to do this."

1992: Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush

This Nov. 18, 1992, meeting at the White House featured an outgoing president and a president-elect who had just soundly defeated him.

However, Clinton, the governor of Arkansas, called the meeting "terrific" and said that Bush had been "very helpful," according to a New York Times account.

On Inauguration Day in 1993, Bush left Clinton a gracious letter, another presidential tradition, in which he told his successor: "Your success now is our country's success. I am rooting hard for you."

Obama sounded a similar note on Thursday, telling Trump: "If you succeed, then the country succeeds."