Geeks on a Plane

Guest post by Leonard Speiser, founder and CEO of Twables

“This room is kinda round, oh wait, is this the Oval Office?”

Yes, I am that clueless, but I can explain.  Sorta.

I had the honor of accompanying fellow GeeksOnaPlane attendee John Anderson on a tour of the West Wing.  The only way to see the West Wing is to be escorted by someone who works there, which John’s friend from high school just happens to do.

We entered through a side entrance, the walls were decorated with huge photos of activity at the White House.  These photos are rotated regularly and give the historic building a modern, frenetic feel.  They make you feel like you are right in the middle of all the action.  There are a lot of narrow hallways with these photos but everything feels very narrow and small.  We see the dining room (run by the Navy) which is elegant but also very small. We casually pass by the door to the Situation Room, I almost don’t even notice it.  No hand, retinal or DNA scanners on that door, I’m shocked.  John peppers his friend with questions at every turn.

“What’s that?”
“That’s where the Vice President works.”
“Oh.  What’s that?”
“I’m not sure, maybe a broom closet.”
“Oh.”

We try to go out to the Rose Garden, but it is blocked off.  We see a dog being trained in the Garden, it is Bo and the dog just pulled rank on us.  We wander over to the room that the Cabinet meets in.  They’ve met three times since the changing of the guard.  This room pretty much looks like the one in the movie Dave, but everything feels smaller than I imagined.  What I notice most is that all the rooms are so close to each other.  A few steps later we are looking at the Roosevelt room.  The room is nice but quite simple.   A big table dark hardwood dining style table in the center is surrounded by a few flags and some side tables.  Teddy Roosevelt’s Nobel Peace Prize is hanging on the wall.  John and his friend turn around and start looking at another room.  I finish my look at the Roosevelt Room and join them.  A bust of MLK sits on a side table.  There is a large desk with nothing but a phone on it and two couches face each other.  There is a presidential seal on the ceiling.  The room isn’t that large.  And then I realize the room is circular in shape.

Wait a minute… “is this the Oval Office?”

It is.

“Oh.”

More questions from John.

“Does the President use a computer?”
“Yes, there is a small private office next to the Oval Office where he works on his computer, and he uses it frequently.”
“Is that also where the bathroom is?”
“Yes.”

We walk through the official entry way of the West Wing, and see the famous painting of Washington crossing the Delaware.  Then out to the Press Room.  Also it is very tight in this room.  At the back of the room there are three camera men on call should they need to do an emergency broadcast.  More questions from John.

“What are those for?” [Pointing to a square of LEDs.  Yes we are geeks]

“Those are lights, they fill the room with natural looking light and they emit almost no heat.  They are very expensive but they last forever.”

One of the camera men has been doing this for twenty plus years and recounts being in the middle of so many world changing events.  Listening to him I finally realize I’m in a special place.  Not the Oval Office, the camera man did that.

I suppose what most impressed me with my tour of the West Wing was just how modest it felt.  The White House is, at the end of the day, a cozy and simple house not unlike a very nice Bed & Breakfast (but with a button to launch a nuclear arsenal).  The rooms were uncluttered, classic, and quite small.  The security guards were knowledgeable, friendly, and very casual.  I suppose it was this casual feel that threw me off the most.  Visit London, Paris, or other seats of power and everything feels so huge, formal and regal.  But even through 200 years the White House somehow retains the same feel that I can only imagine the “common” colonial exuded.  Despite our position amongst other nations, our leaders work in a place that says, “We are still just citizens like everyone else.”

It’s funny, but this made the West Wing more impressive than all the palaces of the world.