Missing History & Opportunity in the Obama East Wing

What a heady and tumultuous eight months that whirled by with the first biracial president and African American first lady. My focus is the East Wing of the equation. For the Obamas, two cute and curious kids, an internationally famous puppy and so many inspirational firsts or twists on the past such as the incredible Michelle Obama Kitchen Garden that are now part of the American presidential fabric. But not the electronic strand that marks a spot for the current generation or future ones. It also takes time to coalesce all the moving parts of a White House experience in the first year especially with appointed staff learning the history of the People's House, its contents and all who lived there since the muddy time of John & Abigail Adams. The White House is an eighteen acre bubble shared by an energetic family, military trained attack dogs, eagle eyed snipers, priceless antiques, a rambunctious puppy, incredible works of arts, thousands of daily visitors, vintage trees, a one hundred member staff dedicated to the Residence and now, the newest first lady's bees. That's just the stuff you see if on the premises. It is for those who are not on the premises that my post encompasses.

After leaving the Vatican, the First Family heads to Air Force One to go to Ghana.

The only way to understand the White House is to read voraciously or look at the pictures or if one must, suffer through the soundbites the traditional media thinks are important. What endures is the White House legacy. To that end if one is reading this post online, one should also be able to go to the White House website and find the riches and beauty of the house. It takes a while before new first ladies find their sea legs. Only two first ladies had a relative to call upon to get a multitude of details on the operations of a White House, Louisa Adams had her mother-in-law Abigail Adams as Laura Bush had Barbara Bush.

The West Wing side of the Obama Administration shows savvy at the White House website with a blog, policy briefs, and a YouTube channel. Nothing like it exists readily for the Obama East Wing. Yes, there are a couple of photo albums for the first lady, Michelle Obama, but no blog, no fulsome history of each of the State Rooms, the extensive White House American Art collections, no White House Residence senior staff profiles, no details of events hosted by the first lady that resonate - the music series, the output of the $200 investment of the Kitchen Garden or the choices of China, silverware or floral arrangements used at events. Those things must wait for chronicling by a haphazard news media that misses points for posterity. These details are important and will be part of the record of Michelle Obama's tenure as first lady, especially as the first African American. (Photo courtesy the White House of Michelle Obama meeting the retired Chief Florist Nancy Clarke's new granddaughter at a staff party in the mansion.)

Content on the White House website is important and even the West Wing is struggling to capture everything and get pieces filled in. The East Wing should join alongside the West in providing rich, detailed content about state or official events at the People's House. A great piece has been the live streaming of events on the White House website by both the president and the first lady. Time marches rapidly and before we know it, a year will float by before attention turns to making information available on the website.

The Lincoln Sitting Room off the Lincoln Bedroom on the second floor of the Residence. Cataloging once again the art works for the public is critical.

Certainly Laura Bush had some gaps, but one thing about her being n ex-librarian is that it was extremely thorough on her side of the White House web ledger. It was beyond outstanding and a model that future first ladies should follow with attention to detail to pieces of furniture, pre-scheduled Ask the Staff live chats, individual first ladies portraits and biographies, 3 D tours of renovated spaces - including the Cabinet Room and the Situation Room. Interesting and shocking that President Obama can be comfortably ensconced in the Oval Office decor of President Bush but not the technology savvy displayed on his website. A news sighting of the changing of the White House fountains to Celtic Green for Saint Patrick's Day was duly noted by the press, but its not captured as part of the new thinking the first lady is bringing to White House traditions. I'm waiting, but patiently not so much, as too much history is going by too fast.

Michelle Obama oft repeats that she wants to bring the White House to people who have never seen it and offering up a robust web presence would do that for millions in this nation and millions if not billions more outside of it. Nothing has captured the imagination of global interest like her garden and the implications for nutritional value of home grown local food. Prince Charles waxed ecstatic about the Kitchen Garden and members of Congress along with other guests plus the family eat the fruits of the labor of the kids at Bancroft Elementary, Mrs. Obama, the White House chefs and the landscape crew. It would be great to talk about the garden in terms of healthy eating right at the site - rather than through the occasional news article prompted by a photo op.

Every White House Pet is special. There was a Barney Cam - yeah, he bit a reporter for which first lady Laura Bush wrote a handwritten apology, Socks was a superstar cat and Bo is threatening to need his own reporter assigned to him because he garners so much attention. It was a wonderfully weird presidential picture as the Obamas went on vacation to see a baby car seat (for Maya's infant daughter) and Bo leave a helicopter in the same image. The East Wing smartly came up with a Bo piece that went into bags for the troops. It was pretty cute to watch Malia intently read the doggy bio information before she placed it in the backpack she was supposed to be filling at a service event.

Malia is reading every detail.

All great things in good time, I suppose. Please, Obama East Wing staff - please pay attention to the mound of details about the White House, its environs and the furniture of history that many in the public are acutely interested in for the first time. It is an opportunity so many want and few have have to make such a lasting impact on learning about the White House and its internationally famous first family. The archives of what Laura Bush did is an excellent example from where to start and innovate. We need more information, history lessons and access on the White House website - Please, Please, PLEASE with a vermeil candelabra on top. (Michelle Obama in her East Wing office with her new Chief of Staff, Susan Sher.)

White House Quacks, Barks & Stings

WH View from Putting Green on South Lawn near Oval Office (Photo Courtesy Architectural Digest)

New First Families are the regular order of the day when presidents switch in and out. The multi-faceted talented White House staff takes that in stride. It is the more unusual outdoorsy happenings from the pets and critters, great and small, that give the Executive Mansion a bit of swerve and verve. During the chills of winter, the first lady signed off on a first-ever bee hive for making White House Honey. A horticulture plan must be in place for the right types of flowers to groom next to the hive. Bees are pretty active in the spring and summer collecting pollen from all the flowering plants. It just so happens a White House carpenter extraordinaire and bee master reside in the body of Charley Brandts who takes great pictures of the hive on the WH grounds when not wearing his superhero bee keeping cape.

Michelle Obama said some eyebrows definitely raised when presenting the garden design (chefs, bee keepers, head horticulturist, Chief Usher, National Park Service) plans to a skeptical Malia & Sasha who have a vested interest in their new backyard. The grounds team appropriated prime space for their swing set. Deep in the southern 9 acres is Momma Obama's garden, with the hive closer to the tennis court and the children's garden and that big grand fountain surrounded by blooms. Prior summer flowers for the fountain included geraniums, marigold lilies (lots of marigolds in the Obama Victory Garden) and petunias. Add the inquisitive nature of Sherlock Holmes to one rambunctious puppy and things can get a bit tense. Bo's walks are matters of national security. Seriously. When in DC, the president walks Bo. Not sure what Secret Service protocol is for a bee protest.

Bo passes the West Wing on a walk with White House Horticulturist Dale Haney. He has a great deal of experience with First Family pets too.)

Bo is closer than most Americans will ever be to the "football" - the codes for the nuclear weapons. The White House doctor will make sure no allergy sufferers are without the appropriate antidotes. Interesting, because in about 6 weeks, the Obamas will host a major annual gathering of congressional spouses, children and friends on the South Lawn, close to the Fourth of July, before he and Michelle make another international tour, including Ghana. At this time, it is not clear whether either or both of the First Daughters will accompany their parents on such a major trip. The East Wing is already gearing up for the inevitable press crush probably making the First Family appreciate the secret life of bees more.

(Charlie Brandts removing North swarm of bees after installing the domesticated bees on South Lawn)

A few suicidal bees roaming on pollen patrol could send things out of hand, if not paying attention during the season. That already happened in the near the West Gate, with the same beekeeper going out in full regalia to collect the Queen Bee and the swarms and rescue the media from enduring bee stings while doing their live shots on the North side of the White House. The "Renegade" bees (ha ha code name puns) moved in without an election to enjoy an annual springy "Renaissance" garden as the shy "Radiance" of the brilliant sunshine pours on the youngest "Rosebud" determined to use the outdoor pool to teach her new Portuguese Water Dog how to swim.(Photo with hive to the left Courtesy of City Bees, a blog with several posts detailing the insider story of the Obama's sanctioned bees.)

It is known that squirrels frequent the South Lawn. In the middle of this natural park, a Ducky Mom created her own tour of the West Wing shepherding her ducklings past an assistant press secretary's window inspecting the White House grounds. Michele Obama did not arrange for ducks a la orange in the ramped up local food initiative. (Outside West Wing of the White House Photo courtesy New York Daily News)

Sorry for the longer than planned posting absence, but an emergency illness arose stinging me in more ways than one.

Will Bo Get White House Holiday Treatment?

First ladies love their pets.  According to her Thursday speech at the Hilton before 2000 spouses of congress members, Supreme Court justices, cabinet secretaries and other family and friends, Michelle Obama made it clear she was doing the o'dark thirty Bo walking. Her kids are getting good grades and hitting the snooze alarm as Mrs. Obama learns a new parenting/puppy lesson. Another first lady who loved her dog Millie enough to take dictation, translating dog bark into a book and bequeathing one of the 1989 puppies to her son W, liked the immortalized and sculpture technique proudly displayed in the Bush White House beneath her ground floor portrait. One way to pay pet tributes is during the Holidays, but the East Wing Staff needs a lot of prep time to execute the theme flawlessly.  (White House photos courtesy Tina Hager)

Historic pet motifs arise out of past incidents, mischief or a loving theme to make interesting displays during the White House holiday season. Famed Pastry chef, Roland Mesnier created Socks, the cat, peeking from one of the White House windows in one of his exclusive gingerbread architectural wonders for a Clinton Christmas to showcase the White House.  There is Nelson, George Washington's beloved Revolutionary War steed prancing above a Christmas garland bedecked mantle in the East Room.  Calvin Coolidge of the Teapot Dome fiasco had a presidential pooch, Rob Roy with a proud lineage of sheep herding that turned into a quivering mass of NO when it came to riding the White House family elevator.  But the most famous of their pets were Rebecca and Reuben, the family raccoons.

Now is the time 2009 Christmas plans are drawn in further fine detail in the East Wing.  During the transition, First lady-to-be Michelle Obama received a thorough briefing of the traditions of the White House; Easter Egg Roll, Spring (April) & Fall (October) Garden Tours, the upcoming holiday season Thanksgiving through January 1, 2010. The themes are chosen well in advance for the holidays to allow artisans enough time to craft and get their work to the White House.  In 2003, Laura Bush chose to pay holiday homage to White House Pets, past and present.  Even though Mrs. Obama may choose another theme, somewhere Bo will show up either in a pastry or as a holiday ornament and maybe just maybe on the first official Obama White House greeting card.

Rob Roy on Ground Floor display. Woodrow Wilson's sheep depicted in East Room

Lafayette's gift of an alligator lived in the bathroom of John Quincy Adams East Room.  Liberty was famous for being President's Ford's favorite golden lounge lizard in the Oval Office. In the mid 1970's Liberty gave birth to presidential puppies. Theodore Roosevelt son's pony Algonquin was more fearless than Coolidge's Rob Roy by getting squashed into the elevator by another sibling undetected by White house staff to visit Archie.  The Roosevelts also had a colorful macaw.  In 1944, Cousin Franklin, was a wee bit absentminded and left Fala behind on some Aleutian island and you bet the president sent a Navy destroyer to go fetch his dog.  Him and Her, I am not sure whether to pity them or just admire their longevity alongside Yuki - a Texas gas station find by his daughter Luci.  When President Johnson lifted his pet Beagle, Him, up by the ears, America was horrified. 

President Warren Harding's dog, Laddie Boy held court in his own chair at cabinet meetings.  Senator Ted Kennedy and his wife Vicki gave Bo, the Portuguese Water Dog to the Obama family following a great White House tradition.  Checkers was a gift to Vice President Richard & Pat Nixon while Pushinka (Russian = fluffy) came to Caroline Kennedy courtesy of pound the kitchen table shoe guy and Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev.  Bo's antics will cause the White House's chefs to come up with something uniquely his for the holiday season.  The key is where will his icing and cake plaster likeness show up in a place of honor, Ground Floor, East Room or greeting guests for the holidays at the East Gate? 

(Photo Pete Souza/White House) White House Deputy Mosteller tries to save his latest shoeshine in Cabinet Room.