Obama, Hillary Clinton do lunch at White House, with 'friendship' on the agenda Clinton arrives for Obama meeting RAW VIDEO: It's the most talked about lunch in the nation's capital. President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are dining privately at the White House. Washington: Hillary Rodham Clinton has walked the halls of the White House as a first lady, a senator and a secretary of state. On Monday, she returned as a former diplomat who might just want one more job. Clinton was back at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. for a private lunch with President Barack Obama, a meeting that the White House said was closed to the press. It was also likely that the two would talk politics as well and whether Clinton will run for president again in 2016. The two former rivals for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination were originally supposed to break bread in the president's private dining room, off the Oval Office. Instead they ate outside during a rare, pleasant summertime afternoon in Washington. The White House said the kitchen provided Obama and his first secretary of state grilled chicken, some pasta jambalaya and salad. President Barack Obama has lunch with former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on the patio outside the Oval Office. Photo: White House "It's largely friendship that's on the agenda for the lunch today," said Josh Earnest, the deputy press secretary. So it's not a working lunch as much as it is an opportunity for the two who saw each other on a pretty frequent basis over the course of the last four years to get a chance to catch up. Given Clinton's last job and the turmoil around the world, it seemed likely that the two would talk about Egypt, the emerging peace talks in the Middle East and the diplomatic battle over Edward Snowden, the fugitive US intelligence contractor. On the question of the peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians, which began at the Georgetown home of the current secretary of state, John Kerry, on Monday night, Earnest said that "the purpose of the lunch is chiefly social, but given that the president and Secretary Clinton worked on this pretty closely together over the course of the last four years, I'd be surprised if it didn't come up." Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrives at the White House in Washington for lunch with President Barack Obama. After the lunch, neither side would confirm details about the discussion. Aides close to Clinton said that she and Obama saw each other in Dallas this year for the opening of former President George W. Bush's presidential library. The two discussed getting together then and settled on Monday for lunch. Nick Merrill, a Clinton spokesman, said the former secretary of state would defer to the White House for any comment about the meeting. Some of Clinton's associates have been busy setting up what appears to be a political infrastructure should she decide to run again. That prospect has clearly animated some of the party's base. In polls, Clinton remains popular, especially among women who see her as the best candidate for becoming the first woman elected president. Still, it is unclear how difficult it would be for Clinton to build the type of campaign machinery that helped power Obama to the presidency twice. There was no word on whether Vice President Joe Biden, who has also signalled his interest in a run for president in 2016, stopped by for dessert. He has, however, invited Clinton to his residence for breakfast Tuesday.