I just watched my first Gibbs presser on Cspan replay. I am very impressed.

[NRaleighLiberal]

I've read all sorts of posts here on how he could use less "ah's", could be more dynamic.

Well, his style is refreshing - imagine, a reputable, seemingly honest, modest, smart person who doesn't continually spew lies and obstruction. I am impressed, and reassured.

One of those little delights in life - not having to watch Ari, Scott, Tony or....GAG...mindless Dana Bimbo-Rino any longer!

[Tangerine LaBamba]

1. I'm old,

and I remember when Pierre Salinger was JFK's press secretary. He was sophisticated and slick, but he was also immensely knowledgeable, clearly within the Oval Office loop on all matters, and he never spoke in canned phrases. He was terrific.

But, beginning with, I think, the Nixon administration, and Ron Ziegler, the press secretaries started to talk in hack language, evasive, petty, nit-picking the meaning of words, and doing everything they could to keep the press in the dark.

Which is sort of part of their job, but it got carried to ridiculous extremes. Tony Snow, Dana Perino, Scott McClellan - all of them shills, hacks, liars.

Watching Gibbs is like hearing a never-before-discovered Mozart piece for the first time. It's almost other-worldly because he's not playing games and he's honestly trying to clarify issues.

He's gonna get better, too, as he gets more comfortable, and that will be beautiful.

[malaise]

2. Beautifully stated

I really like him so far.

[Ichingcarpenter]

5. He's gotten better with each Press conference- I remember Salinger too

Nice reference. I gave Gibbs a B- the first one
and a A- today


I do worry about his health since he's in his 30s
and I thought he was older.

[Elwood P Dowd]

8. He has been working 70-80 hours a week for Obama the past 5 years.

Some people just age faster than others under those conditions.

[Ichingcarpenter]

9. He has confessed about his love for southern fried cooking

I just want him to stay around for 8 years.

I did think he was in his early 40s

[Elwood P Dowd]

10. Yes, Obama has made a few jokes about his eating habits.

He is 38. His high school reunion is scheduled this summer, so maybe I will get some feedback from his old high school friends down here.

[Ichingcarpenter]

13. Grew up with Bacon Fat in my green beans

Fried Chicken, Grits, and then simmered in Crisco

His diet needs to change. I have an uncanny ability
to see health questions in others far ahead, but not for myself. Obama needs
to take him to the GYM in the morning and eat some elite some elite Italian greens
(remember that one?) at the White House, which has a damn fine Gym.


DC has the best free government gyms in the world. I went to the Pentagon
Gym growing up, Its 3 levels below ground even saw Robert McNamara
push my brother off the bench in the locker room (my brother only tried to sit at the same bench where our locker was.

The Gym below the Pentagon had at that time covered almost the whole Pentagon, which was the largest building in the world at one time.

Anyway, He's off the road now and hopefully take advantage of DC to improve
his health. Some of the best restaurants are in DC because of the international
flavor of the city.

[Elwood P Dowd]

14. I lived in DC in 1971 and 1972

when the Army drafted me (late 1970) at the end of Vietnam. The Pentagon was so fucking huge, I never noticed any gyms in there. I had to go over there a couple of times a month doing Army business, so I never knew about them.

[Ichingcarpenter]

16. My Dad was a bird working for the joint chiefs at that time

He said that below the Pentagon are at least 7 levels.
They have been digging it out for years slowly.

There is a bunker ....... way down that looks like
something out of Dr. Strangelove.

My Dad had
top secret clearance after working on the original
Nuclear test ban treaty for President Kennedy so
I don't think he was shitting me.

I was in Walter Reed for about 10 days in 66
with soldiers that came back from Nam

One died next to my bed and another died
in the same galley that night. I was 13yrs old and in a ward
of about 25 soldiers coming back from Nam.

[Elwood P Dowd]

18. Were you there in April/May 1971 during the demonstrations?

There were about 200,000 people there that weekend and I was one of 'em. Glad I didn't get into any trouble, because I could have been shipped off to who knows where. Anyway, early Monday morning back doing my Army work I had to go over to DC from Ft Myer and the cops and military were arresting people left and right. That was the weekend John Kerry threw away his ribbons. I think he kept his actual medals.

[Ichingcarpenter]

20. I went to NOVA at that time and cut class

Got Pushed in the reflecting pool by a cop on horseback

Yeah, I was there then, even have a photo of it taken .

[Elwood P Dowd]

21. Do you have a list of the musical groups playing that weekend?

I was so wrecked that weekend, I don't even remember in my old age. I sometimes wonder how I survived 2 years in the US Army without a single Article 15.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

22. Top secret

There's a tunnel that connects the Pentagon to the White House. Should something happen, this is where the President would be taken to be safe. It's huge and deeply underground and there are teams of elite Marines who are trained to make it from the Pentagon to the White House in under ten minutes. If you know the area, you know what this means.

It's really top secret.

I probably won't be back here anymore.................................

[applegrove]

11. I like him. He's not perfect but informative.

[navarth]

3. Gibbs is going to be really good

I've like him ever since I saw him kick Sean Hannity's ass.

[Elwood P Dowd]

4. Video of Gibbs kicking some Hannity ass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2AaqcaMkU8

[elleng]

7. how obnoxious that hann!

.

[goclark]

6. He is honest and not telling LIES, refreshing

I like him very much.

He is not arrogant and that is a change.

[EFerrari]

15. Under that mild manner, I suspect there is a bulldog that has Obama's back.

I love it. :)

[Elwood P Dowd]

17. Article about Robert "Bulldog" Gibbs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/magazine/21Gibbs-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1


ONE WAY THAT THE OBAMA MODEL in the White House would diverge sharply from the Bush model is that Gibbs knows his principal intimately — Obama’s mind, his history, his rhythms. In addition to his podium duties, Gibbs said he plans to continue to spend a great deal of time advising Obama. “That’s part of the role that the president-elect wants me to be taking on,” he told me.

Obama praises Gibbs’s intuitive sense of “what is on the minds of the American people,” and his ear for “how things play” in the media. “He’s honest, sometimes to a fault,” Obama said. “And he’s passionate about folks getting a fair shake.” Gibbs, he added, is “invaluable in any discussion we’re having about policy or politics. And beyond that, I trust him completely.”

<snip>

ON A TEAM known for its cerebral, even-tempered approach, Gibbs is something of a scrappy populist. “Because he has a Southern accent, I often think that he is underestimated by people,” Dunn said of Gibbs, who tends to be playfully chauvinistic about his Southern heritage. He counts himself a member of an organization called Rednecks for Obama, started by two old guys from Missouri operating out of a pick-up truck. He is a proud owner of a Rednecks for Obama T-shirt, button, bumper sticker and sign, all of which he says he will take to his office at the White House.

Called “Bobby” as a kid, Gibbs spent his formative years in the college town of Auburn, Ala. The son of two librarians, Gibbs hated to read as a child and, sure enough, grew up to make his living as a talker. His parents were liberal Democrats, part of the 10 percent of white Alabamans who voted for Obama over McCain, the lowest proportion in the country.

<snip>

Another recurring episode during the campaign was for Obama and his advisers to be debating something while Gibbs sat off to the side staring into his BlackBerry. Without looking up, Gibbs would utter some random thought that would stop the discussion cold.

“Well, there’s Gibbs’s one good idea for the day,” Obama would quip, according to Jim Margolis, a campaign ad man and media adviser.

Dunn tells the story of a tense practice session before the third debate in which Obama, sitting at a table, kept looking up intently at Gibbs across the room. They were sending urgent-looking BlackBerry messages back and forth, and Dunn became concerned that some crisis had arisen. When the session ended, the men ran over to each other. It was a Sunday afternoon, and they had been following the fortunes of Obama’s fantasy football team.

[EFerrari]

19. That's a great profile! I can see the Tom Hagen in Gibbs, easily.

People underestimated Hagen, too. :)

[goclark]

23. Hope so!

I really like his easy going manner and kind spirit.

Did I see Helen in the first row again?

[EFerrari]

24. Yes, ma'am.

This is the world moving back into its proper orbit. :)

[goclark]

25. Honesty......what a sparkling word ~ love him!

[Cha]

12. I just saw the very first

presser when the inner jackal surfaced in the White House press corp. I thought Gibbs held them at bay, nicely with his determination and humor.

Gibbs doesn't have to lie to protect his boss..so he has that going for him too.