Oval Office in the context of "The West Wing"

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⭐ Core Definition: Oval Office

The Oval Office is the formal working space of the president of the United States at the White House in Washington, D.C. Part of the Executive Office of the President, it is located at the southeast corner of the West Wing.

A new Oval Office was the idea of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and was designed by architect Eric Gugler as part of a 1933-34 expansion of the West Wing. President William Howard Taft had built a 1909 Oval Office at the center of the south side of the West Wing, but it was damaged in a 1929 fire. The new office offered FDR, who used a wheelchair, easier access, more privacy, and much more natural light. The Taft Oval Office was demolished in Gugler's expansion of the West Wing, and the space became additional staff offices.

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Oval Office in the context of White House

The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800 when the national capital was moved from Philadelphia. The White House is also a metonym for the Executive Office of the President.

The residence was designed by the Irish-born architect James Hoban in the Neoclassical style. Hoban modeled the building on Leinster House in Dublin, a building which today houses the Oireachtas, the Irish legislature. Constructed between 1792 and 1800, its exterior walls are Aquia Creek sandstone painted white. When Thomas Jefferson moved into the house in 1801, he and his architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe added low colonnades on each wing to conceal what then were stables and storage. In 1814, during the War of 1812, the mansion was set ablaze by British forces in the burning of Washington, destroying the interior and charring much of the exterior. Reconstruction began almost immediately, and President James Monroe moved into the partially reconstructed Executive Residence in October 1817. Exterior construction continued with the addition of the semicircular South Portico in 1824 and the North Portico in 1829.

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Oval Office in the context of Cabinet Room (White House)

The Cabinet Room is the meeting room for the officials and advisors to the president of the United States who constitute the Cabinet of the United States. The room is located in the West Wing of the White House, near the Oval Office, and looks out upon the White House Rose Garden.

The first inauguration of Harry S. Truman as the 33rd president of the United States was held at 7:00 pm on Thursday, April 12, 1945 in the Cabinet Room, soon after the death of Franklin Roosevelt.

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Oval Office in the context of Knocking on wood

Knocking on wood (also phrased touching wood or touch wood) is an apotropaic tradition of literally touching, tapping, or knocking on wood, or merely stating that one is doing or intending to do so, in order to avoid "tempting fate" after making a favorable prediction or boast, or a declaration concerning one's own death or another unfavorable situation.

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Oval Office in the context of West Wing

The West Wing of the White House is the location of the office space of the president of the United States. The West Wing contains the Oval Office, the Cabinet Room, the Situation Room, and the Roosevelt Room.

The West Wing's three floors include offices for the vice president, the White House chief of staff, the counselor to the president, the senior advisor to the president, the White House press secretary, and their support staffs. Adjoining the press secretary's office, in the colonnade between the West Wing and the Executive Residence, is the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, along with workspace for the White House press corps.

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Oval Office in the context of White House Chief of Staff

The White House chief of staff is the head of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, a position in the federal government of the United States.

The chief of staff is a political appointee of the president of the United States who does not require Senate confirmation, and who serves at the pleasure of the president. While not a legally required role, all presidents since Harry S. Truman have appointed a chief of staff. James Baker is the only person to hold the office twice or serve under two different presidents.

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Oval Office in the context of Partners desk

A partners desk, partner's desk or partners' desk (also known as a double desk) is a mostly historical form of desk, a large pedestal desk designed and constructed for two users working while facing each other. The defining features of a partner's desk are a deep top and two sets of drawers, one at each end of the pedestal.

The design evolved from 18th-century library writing tables with drawers on two or more sides.

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Oval Office in the context of Reaganomics

Reaganomics (/rɡəˈnɒmɪks/ ; a portmanteau of Reagan and economics attributed to Paul Harvey), or Reaganism, were the neoliberal economic policies promoted by Ronald Reagan, president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. These policies focused mainly on supply-side economics. Opponents (including some Republicans) characterized them as "trickle-down economics" or Voodoo Economics, while Reagan and his advocates preferred to call it free-market economics.

The pillars of Reagan's economic policy included increasing defense spending, slowing the growth of government spending, reducing the federal income tax and capital gains tax, reducing government regulation, and tightening the money supply in order to reduce inflation.

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Oval Office in the context of White House Rose Garden

The White House Rose Garden is a garden bordering the Oval Office and the West Wing of the White House in Washington, D.C., United States. The area is approximately 125 feet long and 60 feet wide (38 m by 18 m, or about 684 m). It is adjacent to the South Lawn and is commonly used as a stage for receptions and media events due to its proximity to the building.

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Oval Office in the context of Richard Nixon's resignation speech

Richard Nixon's resignation speech was a national television address delivered from the Oval Office by U.S. president Richard Nixon the evening of August 8, 1974, during which Nixon announced his intention to resign the presidency the following day, August 9, 1974, due to the Watergate scandal.

Nixon's resignation was the culmination of what he referred to in his speech as the "long and difficult period of Watergate", a 1970s federal political scandal stemming from the break-in of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate Office Building by five men during the 1972 presidential election and the Nixon administration's subsequent attempts to cover up its involvement in the crime. Nixon ultimately lost much of his popular and political support as a result of Watergate. At the time of his resignation the next day, Nixon faced almost certain impeachment and removal from office.

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