Visiting world leaders likely to doze off. (reuters photo)
While President Obama was on vacation, the White House finally got around to redecorating the Oval Office — just in time for tonight’s big national address on Iraq!
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We always thought it was weird how Obama just moved into President Bush’s old office with only minor changes. He kept the rug — the “optimistic” pattern designed by Laura Bush that President Bush used to talk about all the time. He swapped out some decorative plates for books, saying he wasn’t really a dish person. And he moved in some new art.
But other than that, he was mostly inhabiting Bush’s old digs. To our mind, it was not unlike Henry Francis living in Don Draper’s old house — new bed or no.
Even the photogs feel it’s a little…..beige. (reuters photo)
Before Hemingway, Freire and Carney start harumphing about taxpayer expense and loading up their manual typewriters for outraged newspaper columns, a bunch of this was paid for by the non-profit White House Historical Association (with contributions from the Presidential Inauguration Committee). OK? Simmer down.
From the pool report:
The White House statement noted that both President Clinton and President George W. Bush engaged in “a comparable level of redesign” with funds from their Presidential Inaugural Committees to the White House Historical Association.
Asked how much the redo cost, the White House press office said it was “in line with the amount spent by Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush on the redesigns of their Oval Office.”
Not sure we approve entirely of that coffee table. (ap photo)
So what all did he get? As you can see, Obama kept the famous Resolute Desk. Good choice.
Decorators put in new wallpaper, paint, drapes, couches, re-upholstered chairs, and that table that from here looks like it’s covered in “marble-tone” contact paper.
The centerpiece of it all is the new rug. Each president gets to design his own. And we’ll just say it — some have better taste than others (we’re looking at you, Bill Clinton).
From the pool report:
The new wheat, cream and blue colored oval-shaped rug is made of 25 percent recycled wool. The rug has the Presidential seal in the center and historical quotes of meaning to President Obama around the border. The rug was made and donated by the Scott Group, an American carpet manufacturer headquartered in Grand Rapids, Mich. The Scott Group previously made the Oval Office rug designed for former President Bill Clinton as well as rugs for the White House State Dining Room.
Soothing. And yet….there’s that table again. (reuters photo)
Seriously — does that table really go?
Obama picked a bunch of historical quotes that you can see around the edge of the rug. They are:
“The Only Thing We Have to Fear is Fear Itself” – President Franklin D. Roosevelt
“The Arc of the Moral Universe is Long, But it Bends Towards Justice” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Government of the People, By the People, For the People” – President Abraham Lincoln
“No Problem of Human Destiny is Beyond Human Beings” – President John F. Kennedy
“The Welfare of Each of Us is Dependent Fundamentally Upon the Welfare of All of Us” – President Theodore Roosevelt
Beltway might have thrown in some Walt Whitman. Or Nikki Sixx. There are other great American thinkers, ya know.
Dying to remember what the Bush Oval looked like?
Heh! Heh! Condi! (ap photo)
Ahem. Bill Clinton:
Just saying. So garish.
(photo: Clinton Presidential Library)
