Michael SmithWhat’s the first word that pops to mind when you think of Barack Obama?  Odds are that you said “Change.”   And while the President-Elect has been busily nominating some of the brightest minds in the country to fill out his Cabinet so as to best bring about that indeterminate abstraction, it has just been revealed that an LA-based designer will be responsible for a great deal of the actual, physical changes at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Michael Smith has been enlisted to redecorate the private quarters of the White House.  Smith would appear to be another well-selected functionary in the pre-nascent Obama administration.  He is well-educated and highly esteemed.  He is also is relatively young, 44, and modern, yet classic and fundamentally traditional – a description that applies just as neatly to the Obama’s themselves.  Well played.

I hate to guess how anyone would receive such news.  Presumably, he’ll feel some pressure; most assuredly he won’t have the full run of the place – think of all the red tape!  The government can’t decide whether or not torture is acceptable, so I can only imagine how tough it may be to get a decision on what color to paint the Lincoln Bedroom.  Nevertheless, it’s got to be the project of his life.  Pretty cool really.  So if you happen to see Mr. Smith walking along the boulevard, you may want to follow not too far behind and spy any acquisitions.  It may just be the closest you ever get to The Oval Office.