Annals of Rugology

Bill Clinton says he loves that Oval Office rug. Oh, dear, that takes me back. I know, I repeat myself, but I'm an old guy, it's my job to repeat myself. You know where this is going: I'm remembering A.B. "Happy" Chandler and the Kentucky Gubernatorial Campaign of 1959. Chandler, ex-Senator, ex-Governor, ex-Baseball Commissioner, was fighting for a comeback in one more campaign for the State House.

In so many ways, this campaign was a nostalgiac throwback/farewell to populist campaigning in the pre-Palin era: bands, hoopla, horseplay and general hilarity. Chandler loved to tell the crowd that the incumbent had refitted the governor's office with "a $20,000 rug," (pronounced "ru-u-u-u-ug," or something on that order--in fact it appears to have cost $2,700 but that's a detail). "You know what we gonna do," the Harvard Law Grad Chandler barked, against the enthusiastic cheers of the multitiudes, "--what we gonna do when we get to Frankfort?"

And answering his own question:

We gonna take off our shoes and walk on that rug!

[Prolonged cheering and applause]. Cf. generally: Time Magazine. Best analog I know is the governor in Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men, who wants to get to the capitol for (I quote from memory) "the peach ice cream for breakfast"--fictional, but everybody forgets that it was not Huey Long. Unhappily for Chandler, it turned out to be a nostalgia tour, like the Kingston Trio on PBS. Chandler lost, to a much duller, but perhaps smarter and in any event far craftier candidate. Who may not have taken off his shoes and walked on that rug.

Addendum: The only other thing I know about rugs is that there's no IP: the fuzzy side is always up, and 90 percent of the product is beige.