When President Obama redecorated the Oval Office, it was in various shades of beige. “I like taupe,” he explained to The New York Times. Taupe is an abomination. It’s a nothing colour. It doesn’t shout “drab”; it murmurs it. What a tragic mutation from the vibrant red and blue of those Obama posters emblazoned with the word “HOPE”. It is as if Obama’s taste in decoration is a symbol of the energy that has leeched out of his presidency, culminating in those awful midterm election results last week. The virtues he had then have become his faults now.