The student blog for Drake University first year seminar entitled Visual Politics

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Obama's speech

Once the 44th president was elected the major item he thought about was rearranging the oval office. Obama’s new oval office consists of new paint, wallpaper, and furniture that is more modern and inclines to be the colors of brown, gold, or yellow. His new furniture embraces sofas, a box table, and some navy blue pillows on the couches. Obama managed to change everything in the oval office but a few things; the portraits of Washington and Lincoln remain as well as the grandfather clock and the American flag. The American flag symbolizes unity and the love for our country. By keeping the portraits and the grandfather clock in the oval office it illustrates that Obama desires to remember the significant things in the past, but at the same time Obama wanted to overlook some events in the past by redesigning the oval office.


On August 31, 2010 Obama conveyed a speech withdrawing the troops from Iraq and declaring the Iraq war to be over. When Obama was elected President he promised to end the war in Iraq, he kept his promise. When giving his speech from the oval office Obama had no distractions, nothing bothered him enough to throw off his speech. He gave his speech brilliantly while the setting of his talk didn’t affect him once. Redesigning the oval office helped Obama deliver his speech with no commotions and help define who he is as the President.

                                -Sierra Riasati

1 comment:

  1. I agree with your view on redecorating the oval office and how President Obama wanted to keep neutral colors and keep tradition. To add to your last point, I think that the bland colors are boring to look at sometimes and adding some color or something unique is okay. I feel like sometimes when I watch Presidential speeches they become dull and sound like the information is repeated over and over again and having color helps me focus. I think some people would diagree and say adding color would be distration.
    Megan Fisher

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