Inside the USA

Bush est complètement “obsédé” par son tapis, celui qui orne le sol du bureau ovale.

Il prétend que la “première décision d’un président est de choisir quel tapis il veut dans son bureau.” A son arrivée au pouvoir, il a donc pris une vraie décision de leader, en déléguant le design du nouveau tapis… à sa femme. Avec une seule consigne, que le tapis montre qu’il est “une personne optimiste” :

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.’ “

Le président américain fait donc une fixation sur le sol de son bureau et ne manque pas d’anecdotes sur le sujet : parfois “il le décrit comme une métaphore sur le leadership”, ou il peut insister sur le fait que même Vladimir Putin est tombé en admiration, ou encore décrire ses “qualités de luminosité.” Mais il fait de cet objet bien plus qu’un sujet de conversation, il le voit comme un symbole de sa présidence, basée sur l’optimisme :

“He loves his rug,” said Nicolle Wallace, the White House communications director. “I’ve heard him describe it countless times.”

Sometimes Bush describes it as a metaphor for leadership. Sometimes he relates how Russian President Vladimir Putin admired the carpet. Sometimes he seems most taken by the lighting qualities.

“When you’re giving a tour of the Oval Office, you’re trying to point to things that emphasize what you’re trying to do” Wallace said. “For him, the optimism is very symbolic of what he wants his presidency to be about.”

L’explication se trouve donc dans le tapis. Tout est là. Toute la présidence de Bush. Voilà, voilà…
Et il ne gêne pas pour y faire référence, même en ballade hors de son bureau. Exemples :

• Interview sur la chaine ABC le 26 février 2006 :
  

  BUSH: You know an interesting story about the rug? Laura designed the rug.

  VARGAS: She did?

  BUSH: Yeah, she did. Presidents are able to pick their own rugs or design their own rugs.

  VARGAS: Did you just change the rug, or did you change some of the furniture as well?

  BUSH: Changed the rug, no, the rugs been here since I’ve been here. Or actually since she designed the rug and then it was woven.

  VARGAS: So what happens when you’re finished?

  BUSH: It goes in a warehouse.

  VARGAS: It does?

  BUSH: Yeah. (Laughs)

  VARGAS: You’re not going to take it home and put it in a family room or something?

  BUSH: I don’t get to. I think this is government property, Elizabeth. And as you know, you got to leave government property where it belongs. But 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.‘”

  VARGAS: Hmmm.

  BUSH: And she did a fabulous job.

  VARGAS: She did. It’s beautiful.

  BUSH: Well, thanks, I will tell her you said so. And anyway, this is a very bright and open area and it helps me think and I like it. I like to stay here.

• Discours sur la guerre globale contre la terreur, le 23 janvier 2006, à l’université du Kansas :
  

  In order to make good decisions, you’ve got to rely upon the judgment of people you trust. I’ll never forget the first decision I had to make as the President. I wasn’t even sworn in yet, and a fellow called me on the phone and he said, what color rug do you want to have in the Oval Office? (Laughter.) You’ve got to be kidding me, man. (Laughter.) He said, no, what color rug would you like to have in the Oval Office? I said, I don’t know. He said, well, it turns out that Presidents — you’ve just got to know Presidents design their rugs. I said, well, to be honest with you, I don’t know much about designing rugs.

  So I called, I delegated — that’s one of the things you do in decision-making. (Laughter.) I said, Laura, how about helping design the rug? (Laughter.) Part of being a decision-maker, though, is you’ve got to help — you’ve got to think strategically. And so I said to her — she said, what color do you want? I said, make it say this: optimistic person comes here to work every single day. You can’t lead the nation, you can’t make good decisions unless you’re optimistic about the future.

• Réception de l’équipe championne de la ligue féminine junior de softball, le 11 janvier 2006 :
  

  President Bush showed off his Texas art, asked them about their victory and shared his Parable of the Optimistic Rug: The Oval Office rug, he told the team, was designed with bright colors and sunny feel. “He told us to be optimistic and never down about something,” Khoury said.

• Même – surtout ? – dans la vidéo de la ballade virtuelle dans le bureau du président, commentée par ses soins :
  

  It helps make this room an open and optimistic place.

Le tapis, parfaite métaphore d’une administration qui gouverne avec ses pieds. Une bien belle histoire répétée mécaniquement, comme une dérisoire tentative de faire passer un message qui ne passe plus.

Allez, avec un peu d’optimisme, il y aura alternance en novembre prochain.

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Article lié : S(c)andales à la Maison Blanche