New styles at the White House during Obama's first week

Tidbits from articles observing some of the differences in White House life during Obama's first week:


Mr. Obama has brought a more relaxed sensibility to the White House. David Gergen, an adviser to both Republican and Democratic presidents, said Mr. Obama seems to exude an "Aloha Zen," a kind of comfortable calm that, Mr. Gergen said, reflects a man who "seems easygoing, not so full of himself."

On his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. Thus did a rule of the George W. Bush administration -- coat in the Oval Office at all times -- fall by the wayside.

Over the weekend, Mr. Obama’s first in office, his aides did not quite know how to dress. So the president issued an informal edict for business casual on weekends -- and set his own example. He showed up Saturday for a briefing with his chief economic adviser, Lawrence H. Summers, dressed in slacks and a gray sweater over a white buttoned-down shirt.

Veterans of the Bush White House are shocked: "I'll never forget going to work on a Saturday morning, getting called down to the Oval Office because there was something he was mad about," said Dan Bartlett, who was counselor to Mr. Bush. "I had on khakis and a buttoned-down shirt, and I had to stand by the door and get chewed out for about 15 minutes. He wouldn’t even let me cross the threshold."

Yet compared to the Clinton White House, Mr. Obama's new decrees are positively buttoned up. During the weekends at the Clinton White House, you would often see senior staff at work in their jeans and T-shirts. Also, Mr. Clinton received widespread opprobrium when it emerged that he sometimes wore a tracksuit in the Oval Office, something Mr. Obama is unlikely to repeat.

Although his presidency is barely a week old, some of Mr. Obama’s work habits are already becoming clear. Mr. Obama likes to have his workout -- weights and cardio -- first thing in the morning, at 6:45. He reads several papers, eats breakfast with his family and helps pack his daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, off to school before showing up at the Oval Office shortly before 9 in the morning.

He eats dinner with his family, then often returns to work; aides have seen him in the Oval Office as late as 10 p.m., reading briefing papers for the next day.

Mr. Bush listened to a top-secret intelligence briefing on security threats against the United States six days a week -- Monday through Saturday. Mr. Obama gets the briefing on Sundays as well.

Mr. Obama has also added a new addition to the presidential schedule: an economic briefing which is often the first item on his daily agenda. The briefing is led by Lawrence Summers, the former treasury secretary who directs Obama's National Economic Council. Attendees of the economic briefing have included the newly sworn-in Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner and Paul A. Volcker, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve and chairman of the newly formed Economic Recovery Advisory Board.

Mr. Obama has maintained the longstanding presidential tradition of weekly lunches with his vice president. For Mr. Obama, lunch generally means a cheeseburger, chicken or fish in his small dining room off the Oval Office.

When Mr. Bush wanted to see a member of his staff, the aide was summoned to the Oval Office. But Mr. Obama has sought out aides instead of summoning them to see him. One day last week, he turned up in the office of his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, who was in the unfortunate position of having his feet up on the desk when the boss walked in. "Wow, Gibbs," the press secretary recalls the president saying. "Just got here and you already have your feet up." Mr. Gibbs scrambled to stand up, surprising Mr. Obama, who is not yet accustomed to having people rise when he enters a room.

Under Mr. Bush, meetings would start on time and finish on time, or even a touch early. Mr. Bush once locked Secretary of State Colin L. Powell out of the Cabinet Room when Mr. Powell showed up a few minutes late. There is no indication of Mr. Obama starting meetings late like the notoriously late Mr. Clinton, but like Mr. Clinton, Mr. Obama's meetings often run late.

If there is one thing Mr. Obama has not gotten around to changing, it is the Oval Office décor. When Mr. Bush moved in, he exercised his presidential decorating prerogatives and asked his wife, Laura, to supervise the design of a new rug. Mr. Bush loved to regale visitors with the story of the rug, whose sunburst design, he liked to say, was intended to evoke a feeling of optimism.

The rug is still there, as are the presidential portraits Mr. Bush selected -- one of Washington, one of Lincoln -- and a collection of decorative plates. During a meeting last week with retired military officials, before he signed an executive order shutting down the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Mr. Obama surveyed his new environs with a critical eye.

"He looked around," said one of his guests, retired Rear Adm. John D. Hutson, "and said, 'I've got to do something about these plates. I’m not really a plates kind of guy.'"

 

I've made no secret of the fact that I thought GW was quite possibly the worst president in modern times.

But I admired the respect he had for the office of president and the oval office, and he was very gracious during the whole transition. I have no doubt that he will conduct himself with class and dignity befitting the office he held. :thumb:

 

:rolleye33: I still find it hard to believe that this guy is the president of the United States...only four years removed from the back row of the Illinois Senate.

 

Wheres the beer fridge? WTF

Maybe a painting of Grave Digger would liven up the room a little too.

I wonder if Clinton left his cigar box on the desk when he left? :hihi: I would have glued it there!

 

There's got to be a roll of paper towels hidden in there somewhere.

 

Those are in the hallway off the Oval Office...