The Washington Post articles about Bush's fixation with the Oval Office rug really doesn't do this justice, here is the transcript of the rug incident:
Remarks on the National Economy and a Question-and-Answer Session in
Sterling, Virginia
{snip}
"I take great comfort in having people around me who can walk in my
office and tell me what's on their mind. Part of my job is--they say,
``What's your job?'' My job is, decisionmaker. I make a lot of
decisions. Obviously, some of which you've seen, and a lot of them you
don't. And they're big ones and little ones, but you make a lot of
decisions. And if you don't--if you're uncertain about all the facts
surrounding a decision, you've got to rely upon people. And you've then
got to create an environment in which people are willing to come in and
say, ``Here's what's on my mind.''
It's important at the Presidential level. It's important in
business. You've got to have people comfortable about saying, ``Here's
what I think you ought to do, Mr. CEO.'' You've got to listen and have
a--I've always believed in a flat organizational chart.
I think<[Page 91>]
the worst thing that can happen for decisionmakers is to get a filtered
point of view. And it's pretty hard as President, needless to say, but I've got a
group of people around me that are empowered to walk in. Condi Rice,
when she walks in, she comes in as a close friend, but as someone who
knows that our friendship will be sustained, whether she agrees with me
or not. Rumsfeld comes in--and he's a crusty old guy who--
--
and he's got an opinion, and he tells it. And that's important. And
that's the way it is throughout the White House.
I like to tell people, the first decision I made as President was
this--the guy called me--I was at the Blair House looking at my
Inaugural speech, trying to get comfortable with it, get ready to go--it
was a pretty big event coming up, and wanted to make sure that it worked
well. And he said, ``Mr. President-elect, what color rug do you want in
the Oval Office?'' I said, ``Man, this is going to be a decisionmaking
experience----what color rug do I want in the Oval Office?
`` He said, ``No, I'm not kidding you.'' Turns out Presidents
design rugs. Or somebody designs them for them. And I said,
``I don't know anything about rug designing,'' so I delegated to Laura.
Interestingly enough, the job of a leader is to think strategically.
It's important for your businesses; it's important for the country. And
so she said, ``Tell me about the rug.'' And I said, ``I want it to say,
`optimistic person comes here to work every day.' '' It was the
strategic thought for the rug. She figured out the colors. It looks like
a sun, with nice, open colors. You walk into that Oval Office, I think
you're going to say, it looks like, you know, this guy is optimistic.
I'm optimistic--by the way, you can't lead your company and say,
``Follow me, the world is not going to be good.'' You're not going to
have a lot of employees say, ``Great, I love working here,'' you know.
It's got to be, ``Follow me, the world is going to be better,
and I have a plan to do it.''
And one reason I'm optimistic is because I'm sustained by my faith,
family, and friends. I'm also sustained by the fact that I believe
strongly in the values of the United States of America: human rights,
human dignity, individuals count, freedom is the future of the world.
And I'm sustained by those beliefs.
And thanks for the question. It was an interesting question.
Yes."
I struck out a few choice phrases that Bush said in this section because they are just pure bullshit. Another interesting revelation beside the rug is the fact that Bush considers U.S. citizens to be his "employees".
Washington Post article here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030601446.html
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