Bush obsessed with his Oval Office rug. "Make it say op-ti-mis-tic!"

[Bluebear]

....And then there's the rug. Don't forget the rug. President Bush never does.

For whatever reason, Bush seems fixated on his rug. Virtually all visitors to the Oval Office find him regaling them about how it was chosen and what it represents. Turns out, he always says, the first decision any president makes is what carpet he wants in his office. As a take-charge leader, he then explains, he of course made a command decision -- he delegated the decision to Laura Bush, who chose a yellow sunbeam design.

Elizabeth Vargas, the ABC News anchor, was the latest to get the treatment. She went by last week to interview Bush before his trip to Afghanistan, India and Pakistan. Sure enough, she wasn't in the room but a minute or two before he started telling her about the carpet.

"You know an interesting story about the rug?" he asked. "Laura designed the rug."

"She did?" Vargas said.

"Yeah, she did. Presidents are able to pick their own rugs or design their own rugs." Bush went on: "The interesting thing about this rug and why I like it in here is 'cause I told Laura one thing. I said, 'Look, I can't pick the colors and all that. But make it say 'optimistic person.' "

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030601446_pf.html

[wakeme2008]

1. What a simple minded person

:grr:

[liveoaktx]

23. VIDEO of the bits referenced in the article

Bush Rug Obsession

[barbaraann]

2. Hitler was optimistic, too.

"...His faith in ultimate victory was still so overwhelming that it overcame all reason. This was the Hitler who had just told one of his adjutants that the key to victory was steadfastness and determination..."
http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/articles/adlerhorst.aspx

[Skeptor]

16. The account of Hitler's splendid isolation from reality reminds me

of a response given by one of Saddam's lieutenants in the current trial in Bagdad. To the question: "How did Saddam respond when you told him bad news?" came the reply, "We never told him bad news." Could it possibly be ....?

[barbaraann]

20. Yes, Bush, Saddam, and Hitler have some things in common.

n/t

[undergroundpanther]

3. he must be retarded

or something. I find it strange how he gets fixated on bald heads,bicycling, rugs..all these objects and he just obsesses..it's fetishistic to the extreme. Bush's thoughts are consumed by his fixations. Sometimes a fetish can control a person like an addiction.

[Bluebear]

5. It's like he is a non-functioning OCD.

The President of the USA...waxing on about a damn rug.

"Vargas is the latest to get the treatment"...I will bet anyone who goes into his office gets the weird play-by-play of his rug.

[RC]

8. What is an OCD?

Occasionally Cocaine Dependant? Only Caucasians Drink? Oppress Civilians Dictators?

I sure wish people woulds spell things out.

[Bluebear]

9. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder....

But don't worry, yours work fine.

[RC]

10. Thank you. I try.

[Skeptor]

18. Given that a fetish can be due to a physical brain disorder, there might

be something in what you say, but it's probably more in keeping with current neuropsychiatric diagnostics to describe his little problem as a morbid obsession. I'd need to know if he made physical love to the rug to be able to exclude your hypothesis. ;-)

[Random_Australian]

4. I think;

he doesn't. ipso, facto.

But seriously, sounds like a mind that would not be able to cope with the enormity of the events it is in. So it finds an escape.

[China_cat]

6. I wonder what his REAL reaction

was the day Barney peed on that rug on national TV.

[Hubert Flottz]

7. Every repig in Washington has been on their knees on that rug!

It means a lot to a pResident when folks get on their knees in the oval office! ***** Say Amen Somebody!

[Berserker]

12. Yellow is a wonderful

color it matches the streak up his back.

[Bluebear]

13. bwahahahahahaha nt

[Mnemosyne]

17. Amen! n/t

[Crankie Avalon]

11. Well, to tell you the truth...

...what else is he capable of talking about???

Any time he tries to talk about more important issues he says something like "peeance freeance" or "tribal sovereignty is exactly that, it's sovereign" and just makes himself look like an even bigger ass than if he had just stuck to this sort of inane small talk. The sort of nitwit "jest plain folks" type who STILL supports this guy is probably reassured and put at ease by hearing Bush going on about a rug. It's like they're talking with their neighbor about the new bird feeder or the Walmart opening down the block, or something else equally stimulating.

[Bluebear]

22. GOOD good point. nt

[AndyA]

14. What a waste of taxpayer money!

I suppose the rug Clinton had was worn out? So Bushie needed a new one!! This is BULLSHIT!!!

When Americans have no healthcare, and we have other IMPORTANT matters that need to be dealt with, buying a new rug for the Oval Office should not be on the list of necessary expenses. Until America can get someone in the Oval Office who understands this, America will continue to decay and crumble.

What a ridiculous, hideous waste of money! :mad:

[Skeptor]

15. Is that what the DT's does to you?

Heck, I'm glad I gave up spirits before it was too late. :-)

[MetaTrope]

19. Which Middle Eastern dictatorship supplied the rug anyway?

[Bluebear]

21. I wonder where the rug was made!

North Carolina? Tennessee? CHINA?

[Marie26]

24. It's kind of sad, isn't it?

I'm going to come out & say it - I'm starting to feel sorry for Bush. He's almost pathetic anymore, talking about optimistic rugs cause he can't think of anything good to say, smiling for the camera w/people frowning around him, isolated in a bubble cause he can't face reality. He really looks completely miserable to me. I wish he'd just quit & go back to Crawford where he really wants to be. I just can't see him lasting much longer as President.

[ReadTomPaine]

25. A visiting Dem should "spill" indelible ink all over it during a meeting.

Give it a nice, big dark stain from an "unfortunate accident" with a fountain pen.



It's also ever so appropriate. When the next rug comes it to replace the old one, stain that one too. Always a stain on this Presidency, starting in the Oval Office. Just a perfect metaphor, and it'll irritate him like nothing else, if this story about his fixation is indeed true.

Who knows, it might work better than the protests he never sees, speeches he never hears or the op-eds he never reads.

Mightier than the sword? Only one way to find out!


Originally posted in this similar thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=596782&mesg_id=598449