BETHLEHEM, N.C. -- The president of the United States and his cabinet sit on handmade chairs from right here in the good ol' U.S. of A. I know this because I shook the hands of the people who make those chairs.

The factory is up near Bethlehem, N.C. -- a smidge east of Hickory. The name of the company, Hancock & Moore, is known the world over as one of the finest furniture makers anywhere. 

Hancock & Moore sells couches and chairs and tables in thousands of showrooms nationwide.  The fact is the bottoms of some of the sharpest minds are sitting in Hancock & Moore chairs. But when we heard the chair sitting behind the desk in the oval office is usually theirs, too... and the chairs Supreme Court Justices sit upon... and heads of state all over the world,  well that got my curiosity firing, "Are they building Barack Obama's chairs right now?"

The answer is yes!

We got the royal treatment at the factory. Jimmy Moore himself gave us a dizzying four-hour tour (and we skipped a bunch of stuff because we had a limited schedule).

Jimmy is absolutely wonderful. His philosophy is simple: hire the best people, buy the best materials, make the best furniture. They cut no corners. There are no shortcuts. That's it. And for that reason, president after president often turns to Jimmy for a chair from which they will decide the fate of millions of lives. Oh if those chairs could talk! Then again, if the president's chair could talk it would have scared the business out of everyone and be sitting (and talking) in the Smithsonian. But I digress.

As you know President Bush expanded the number of people in his cabinet and so too has President Obama, so Jimmy's team had to go re-measure that long conference table they all sit around. And they have to make the new cabinet's chairs a narrower to fit them all in. They know a whole bunch of other secrets, too. Like which president ordered his chair seat to be a few inches higher than every other seat on the cabinet!

Anyway, Jimmy Moore and his people do some amazing work. It was a real treat to spend an afternoon with them and to see President Obama's chair. Enjoy our video version and if you want to learn more about Hancock & Moore, here's their website: hancockandmoore.com.