This picture was posted on social media of the Oval Office empty for cleaning. What I find most interesting is how it captures with relatively small size of the office. There are adjoining rooms but spaces were simply smaller back then. At the time, this was viewed as a spacious grand room for the Chief Executive.
This was not an official picture but a snap taken by someone who works at the White House. I expect that White House is not entirely happy particularly if it is used as a metaphor for critics about the President’s vacation and times away from the office. The White House tends to carefully control such images and the picture of a vacant office is not one that they would likely release. There is no denial of the picture’s authenticity but I wonder if there is an effort to track down the ad hoc presidential photographer.
The Oval Office was built in 1909.
The Founders read the Law of Nations from 1758, adopted the Constitution in 1789 and built the White House in 1792.
The overriding issue for the Oval Office portion of the White House is that the
current occupant is not eligible for it.
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White House – Built 1792
The Law Of Nations – Written 1758
“The natives, or natural-born citizens, are those BORN IN THE COUNTRY, OF PARENTS WHO ARE CITIZENS. As the society cannot exist and perpetuate itself otherwise than by the children of the citizens, those children naturally follow the condition of their fathers, and succeed to all their rights.”
Is America a Nation of Law? Not according to the Law of Nations.
How appropriate. An empty office for the empty suit who currently occupies it.
I found the photo interesting in the sense I have not seen the woodwork on the floor, which is quite nice actually. I wondered if it was from the renovation during Truman’s presidency or the rebuild after the British sacked Washington. Maybe a reproduction of what was there prior to President Truman.
If the admin goes after whoever took this photo that would certainly be unacceptable. This picture has historic interest and inferring something bad to protect the president’s image shows some troubling censorship.
Great comments, Darren.
There is another photo of the empty oval office with a more illuminated view of the floor at the following URL:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/photo-shows-completely-empty-oval-office-article-1.1917141
I don’t believe for a nanosecond this photo release wasn’t planned. I would not be surprised if this becomes part of the explanation as to his hasty return to the golf course directly following the James Foley speech.
Is this a metaphor for “Event Horizon”? I mean where’d the Chair go?
Hefner – I would not categorize Republican occupations of the Oval Office as occasional but, thankfully, it is trending in that direction.
I wonder why this picture is here at all? It is not really a story, but an offering for those who want to falsely accuse a president of taking too many vacations as David has gladly suggested. You may want to check the number of vacation days of all recent presidents and while you are at it, how many vacation days the House of Representatives have. Of course, to David, Michael Brown is a robber thug who obviously deserved to be shot 6 times and left in the hot Missouri sun for 4 hours. .
rafflaw wrote: “… an offering for those who want to falsely accuse a president of taking too many vacations as David has gladly suggested.”
I have suggested no such thing. I talked about how some might use the picture to talk about his spending a lot of time on the golf course, not vacation.
rafflaw wrote: “… to David, Michael Brown is a robber thug who obviously deserved to be shot 6 times and left in the hot Missouri sun for 4 hours.”
Please do not misrepresent me. As a lawyer, you should know better than to commit libel against me on this blog. I should not be put into a position of having to defend my reputation here. While Michael Brown appears to have been a robber, a thug, and an illegal drug user, I strongly disagree with his body being left in the street for more than 4 hours. I don’t have enough facts to say whether he deserved to be shot six times. Hopefully that information will come out in the investigation. If Brown was trying to kill the officer, then yes, he probably did deserve those shots. If he was cooperating with the officer’s instructions for him to get out of the middle of the street, then he did not deserve those shots.
Squeeky, LOL!
FDR left the White House so cluttered and wrecked that Harry Truman had to do a complete renovation. When you move in after an East Coast snot has lived in a house you must do some deep cleaning. Obama should have done this right off the bat. The photo is really of a room in Monticello.
IN fairness to FDR, nobody had done anything on repairs to the White House during his terms or before. The entire White House was gutted because of its condition. Even TR and his brood could not do that much damage during his time there. FDR could not get appropriations to repair the White House during his terms, and they sure as hell could not allocate funds or materials in the WWII period.
All photographs coming out of the WH are approved by the President and his staff. There are no pool photographers allowed from the news outlets. This is not really a security problem since most major movie studios either have a mock-up or have the plans so they can build a mock-up as needed.
Do normal people totally clear an office like this for cleaning? Seems like something that should be done only when administrations change. I’m serious. I have never removed every bit of furniture from my office to clean. I couldn’t get any work done if I did that.
The photo will likely be used to criticize the President for spending all his time on the golf course. We just had two funerals and a memorial and the only White House representation was for the slain robber thug Michael Brown. There was nobody for Major General Harold Greene, and nobody for the beheaded journalist James Foley. Strange times we live in.
Randy I re-read the article and had missed this was a shot by some random staffer and not an official post. I guess I should read the whole article and not stop after the first paragraph
That said, there’s little issue here, and I do have some experience in secure buildings and rooms. The person who took this will likely be fired, but more for the reason that this administration is more concerned about their message and getting rid of any unauthorized messages than for any actual security issues.
This empty office is adequate for the empty mind that occasionally occupies it.
Before mopping and waxing, my guess is they sprayed it with Luminol first to make sure there was no “Bill Clinton” left there.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
It is still a very big formal office, at least in government. Although I’ve been in the GSA Administrator’s office in the old Dept. of Interior building (18th and G right DC people?). That one is HUGE. And hey the Teapot Dome scandal happened there. Pretty cool to be in someplace ornate and historic like that.
Randy, I really don’t think there’s any security breach here. The room is so old that you really can’t tell anything by outlet placing what’s behind the walls or to be used as a reference for measurement. There’s also very likely multiple layers of kevlar paneling behind the plaster. That stuff is heavy but moldable and not very thick. You could easily put 4-5 layers of level 3 panels in a standard size wall with some adjustments to the studs or mounting points. Beside, the oval office is the most photographed office in the world. Having the desk out of there isn’t going to make anything more or less secure when photographed.
I am not a security expert by any means, but I do know enough that one does not go about photographing things in the military or other sensitive areas without clearing it first. THAT is the problem. With furniture and other things in the way, one cannot get a picture of what is there in terms of security measures. I remember reading Plames book where she kept in all the redactions, and within a few pages I figured out where she had been stationed. That is an example of stupid censorship, especially when it was over 30 yrs old. So I hope the person is found and fired for this one.
Obama went out for burgers, fries and a shake. That’s why the office was empty.
Having been in the military and in secret places, I know how they like to overclassify things, but this photo is not one that should be ignored for a breach of security. This gives a view of how outlets are spaced and where, and what is there and what is not. There are good reasons for security restrictions, and some not so good reasons. I DO hope they catch and punish the person who took this.
It’s a mirage…. The Oval Office has been empty for the last 5 1/2 years….
Reblogged this on BLOGGING BAD w/Gunny G ~ "CLINGERS of AMERICA!".
It is very elegant, if small.