Oval Office rug gets history wrong

Washington post ^ | September 4, 2010 | Jamie Stiehm

[COUNTrecount]

A mistake has been made in the Oval Office makeover that goes beyond the beige.

President Obama's new presidential rug seemed beyond reproach, with quotations from Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. woven along its curved edge.

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." According media reports, this quote keeping Obama company on his wheat-colored carpet is from King.

Except it's not a King quote. The words belong to a long-gone Bostonian champion of social progress. His roots in the republic ran so deep that his grandfather commanded the Minutemen at the Battle of Lexington.

For the record, Theodore Parker is your man, President Obama. Unless you're fascinated by antebellum American reformers, you may not know of the lyrically gifted Parker, an abolitionist, Unitarian minister and Transcendentalist thinker who foresaw the end of slavery, though he did not live to see emancipation. He died at age 49 in 1860, on the eve of the Civil War

[COUNTrecount]

The Wall Street Journal has outlined some of the chic decorative changes at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue:

Handmade striped wallpaper manufactured in Amagansett, N.Y., with trim painted in American-made Benjamin Moore. Obama’s decorating team reupholstered in caramel-colored leather the two mahogany arm-chairs that Bush had placed in front of the fireplace. Obama still uses the famous Resolute Desk favored by some of his predecessors, but got a new leather desk chair and a new (American) walnut coffee table. Both were made in New York State, as were two blue ceramic table lamps.

The new couches were custom-made in New York, but the fabric – light brown cotton with red, white and blue threads running through it – came from Pennsylvania. Maybe it’s coincidence, but New York has 31 electoral votes. Pennsylvania has 21.

[Dengar01]

WOW they kept the picture of George Washington? I would have though a portrait of Karl Marx would have been put up.

But on another note, who goes with beige? He sure isn't reaching out to the gay community with this decorating.

[Pollster1]

History, another topic to add to economics, the Constitution, military strategy, international relations, climate science, and every other topic that Obama has stumbled across. Why would anyone expect Obama to get something right now?

[fso301]

Too much beige and the wall stripes are too distracting.

[zwerni]

Anyone know what the taxpayer bill might have been for all this? Just curious...

[Mmogamer]

Couches. We call em sofa’s in the business heh.

[zwerni]

Anyone know what the taxpayer bill might have been for all this? Just curious...

[Blueflag]

Reportedly zero, cuz honestly, just like prior presidents’ changes, the alterations are funded by private donations and foundations.

[afraidfortherepublic]

This decor, accompanied by the sound of Obama’s carefully crafted cadence, will guarantee that vistors will be bored into somnolence.

[November 2010]

I like beige rugs. I also like white walls in the living room and a mild yellow for the kitchen. I like bisque kitchen appliances. Seriously. Nothing wrong with the color scheme. Now getting a quote wrong is just bad fact checking . . . but that isn’t surprising since the Obama administration is in rebellion against facts and real world limits. We have a toddler administration.

[ilovesarah2012]

Not taxpayer mone, so I’ve heard.

[ladyjane]

Once a plagiarist always a plagiarist.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

It's been said that each President has the portrait or picture of their favorite President in the oval office. Obama’s pick would be a picture of himself.

[MARTIAL MONK]

When you can swivel your head in any direction and see brown, you probably should pull it out.

[Verginius Rufus]

If someone tells Obama that George Washington was a slaveholder, probably he'll have his portrait removed. Washington was the only President who never lived in the White House.

When they first reported on the redecoration, and mentioned the quotations, at first I assumed that they would all be quotations from Obama's own speeches.

[COUNTrecount]

Plus the beige decor will hide the ice cream drips.

[SuziQ]

It's ironic that Abraham Lincoln's quote "government of the people, by the people, and for the people", would be woven into the rug of the Oval Office. Barack Obama has no interest in what 'the people' think. He wants to force his agenda on us, whether we like it, or not, because he and his elite cohorts think THEY know what's best for us.

It's also interesting that Lincoln's quote is shown in the article to actually have been uttered 13 years prior to Gettysburg, by Rev. Theodore Parker, the same man who made the 'arc of the moral universe' statement, later made famous by Dr. King.

[freekitty]

Does the Cheesy Chic Prez ever get anything right?

No.

[nmh]

What a dope!

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” According media reports, this quote keeping Obama company on his wheat-colored carpet is from King.

No, it’s NOT a quote from Martin Luther King.

It’s from Theodore Parker!

“Yet somehow a mistake was made and magnified in our culture to the point that a New England antebellum abolitionist’s words have been enshrined in the Oval Office while attributed to a major 20th-century figure. That is a shame, because the slain civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate was so eloquent in his own right. Obama, who is known for his rhetorical skills, is likely to feel the slight to King — and Parker. “

Obama ignores this quote:

“Funny that in 1850, Parker wrote,

“A democracy — that is a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people.” “

Obama is such an IDIOT!

[Joe 6-pack]

"Too much beige and the wall stripes are too distracting."

IMHO, "striped wallpaper" suits Obama perfectly...