Bio Brief - Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was recently in the news for his snide attack on Palin by writing notes on his hand. I have never liked the man and this little episode didn’t help. Maybe it is his smirks or his attempts at sarcasm or perhaps just his general demeanor. Whatever it was I can’t help getting the feeling that this was the kid in high school who was given constant wedgies, and now in a position of power, he is getting back at the popular kids. I could be way off base, but who knows? Who is Robert Gibbs? What is his background and how did he end up as President Obama’s Press Secretary? So it is time again for one of my Bio Briefs.

Robert Gibbs was born in 1971 in Auburn Alabama, and as Wikipedia goes on to report, both of his parents worked in the Auburn University’s library system. Most bios on Gibbs state that rather than hire a babysitter; his mother would take him with her to League of Women Voters meetings and that his family discussed politics and these meetings during dinner. Librarian parents and League of Women Voters meetings? Oh yeah, I bet I was right about his getting those wedgies in middle school. Maybe, as Wikipedia surmised, this helped hone Gibbs’ interest in politics but I doubt if it helped his reputation in school. Playing the saxophone and being on the debate team probably didn’t help his popularity either. On the other hand he was also the goal keeper on his school’s soccer team, although this was a solo position, apart from the rest of the team.

This was all the information about his earlier life that I could find. The 5 or 6 bios I read provided only these few facts, I still don’t even know if he is on only child or if he has siblings! In fact one bio mentioned four famous people who graduated in his high school class, making it seem as if Gibbs was famous or at least more interesting because of his association with these famous people rather than because of himself. And they might be right.

According to Wikipedia, from 1990-1992 Robert Gibbs continued as a goal keeper but now at North Carolina State University where he graduated cum laude with a degree in political science. That’s it. That one line contains the entire upper educational history for this man. No mention of any other honors, awards, clubs, anything other than that he was on the soccer team for two years. I can’t even find any mention of the year in which he graduated!

Moving on to his early career, while in school, in 1991 Gibbs interned for Alabama Congressman Glenn Browder, eventually becoming his executive assistant in Washington DC. In 1996 Gibbs moved back to Alabama to work on Browders Senatorial campaign, which was unsuccessful. In 1997, 1998 and 1999 Gibbs worked on a different campaign during each of these three years. Then during the 2000 elections, Gibbs worked on Senator Debbie Stabenow’s senate run. According to WhoRunsGov. Com, Stabinow’s unexpected win brought Gibbs to the attention of Jim Jordan, the then executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), Gibbs was then hired to help with the 2002 elections.

In 2003 Jordan was now working on the Kerry campaign and hired Gibbs to be Kerry’s press secretary. But in November 2003 Gibbs quit in protest after Kerry fired Gibb’s mentor Jim Jordon. Yet Gibbs continued to support Kerry’s run for the presidency. In fact, when Gibbs became the spokesman for a liberal advocacy group they launched a vindictive ad using pictures of Osama Bin Laden to attack Howard Dean’s foreign policy experience. This started Gibbs’ reputation as a man who would do whatever it takes to elect his man and maintain his employer’s reputation. Kerry eventually apologized to both Jordan and Gibbs but instead of returning to work for him, Gibbs joined the Obama team.

Robert Gibbs joined team Obama in mid April 2004 and eventually became Obama’s Senate Communications Director. Obama then choose Gibbs as his Senior Strategist for Communications and Message during Obama’s successful run for the 2008 presidency. In 2009 Robert Gibbs then became President Obama’s Press Secretary. As for his personal life, he is married to Mary, a VA attorney and they have one son.

That’s it. Very basic data that wouldn’t be fit even for a resume. Most of his bios don’t even tell you if he worked on winning or losing campaigns from 1997 to 2000! And about the only personal traits we can discern from this bio is that he seems to be a loner, not one who joins groups as he rarely joined any groups or clubs nor do we read of any religious affiliation. Yet he is extremely loyal to whomever he works for, almost to a fault, as he has a reputation of doing whatever it takes to help his man. So in spite of his soft southern accent Gibbs has been called ruthless, aggressive, pugnacious, manipulative and bad cop to Obama’s good cop.

There was one other factor which most bio’s mentioned – Gibbs’ relationship with Obama. Apparently the two men are very close friends. According to the NY Times, Gibbs is more than just a Press Secretary; he is also involved in strategy, politics and messages. I’ve read that he is called “Barack Whisperer” due to his closeness to the President and I’ve also read that he is called “The Enforcer” because of his rapid fire response to any derogatory remarks from the opposition. In addition to the counter attack strategy he has also been credited with the low number of leaks due to his tough management style.

So who is the man? Although his is the face we see each day we truly don’t know much about the man. What is he whispering to our president? What are his beliefs? What makes him tick? Maybe not knowing is what makes him the perfect Press Secretary. He is a blank page on which Obama writes his story and gives his messages.


PS – While proofing my material I discovered that Gibbs does have a brother based on a sentence discussing his mother in whorunsgov.com – “…she brought her two sons with her..” That is the only clue that there is a sibling although he might even be deceased by now. Who knows?

Fox Hunting Season

Barack Obama’s administration is handling their power and influence like a Chicago bully rather than like a United States President. And the White House’s bullying of Fox News is getting way out of hand. No surprise that Obama and his Chicago crew are not enamored with Fox News but they have crossed a line into very scary territory.

The White House war on Fox News seemed to take a new turn after Fox was the first, and for a while only, news media to show the public the disgraceful films of ACORN employees. Fox then had the audacity to run negative reports on Van Jones, a White House environmental adviser, one of many advisers who were never vetted. Therefore it came as a surprise to the WH to see that Fox discovered Jones had signed a statement indicating the government was involved in the 9-11 collapse of the Twin Towers. With Van Jones's quiet resignation, Fox is continuing to investigate other Czars and unvetted advisers. To add insult to injury, the MSM (mainstream media) are now paying more attention to the stories that Fox News breaks and quicker to go after the stories themselves.

To make matters worse Chris Wallace, the Fox Sunday New’s host, actually had the gall to have someone fact-check what the assistant secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs said. Chris Wallace explained “She criticized 'Fox News Sunday' last week for fact-checking -- fact-checking -- an administration official," Wallace said Sunday. "They didn't say that our fact-checking was wrong. They just said that we had dared to fact-check." Wow. What kind of people is Obama hiring? Isn’t shutting down the media that disagrees with you the first thing a dictator does?

Shortly after the fact-checking debacle, Obama, acting more like a spoilsport, then a President, announced that on a single Sunday morning he would be on every major network, including the Spanish network, but not on Wallace's Fox Sunday News show.

In the latest attack on Fox News, the White House senior advisor David Axelrod and White House Communications Director each separately reiterated the new Obama lie that Fox New is “not really a news station”. On Sunday, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanual provided a telling insight into what the core group running Obama’s presidency is thinking “It’s not so much a conflict with Fox News," Emanuel told CNN’s John King. "I suppose the way to look at it and the way … the president looks at it, we look at it is: It’s not a news organization so much as it has a perspective. And that’s a different take. And more importantly, is not have the CNNs and the others in the world basically be led in following Fox, as if what they’re trying to do is a legitimate news organization …”

Wow. They are afraid that the MSM networks, which basically glorify Obama’s presidency with no questions asked, might be influenced by Fox and who knows, the MSM then might even do a negative story. But the frightening part is that as in typical Chicago style politics, the chief of staff is warning the MSM that if they ever act like Fox News, which I guess means to stop deifying Obama, then the White House will go after them, too. As a further signal of how the White House treats their enemies; the number of interviews the President has granted to each network stands as: NBC-12, CBS-11, ABC-9, CNN-7 and Fox News just 2.

But the blatantly unfair treatment of Fox News by the White House has not gone unnoticed. First, ABC’s Jack Tapper asked the following of White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs “It’s escaped none of our notice that the White House has decided in the last few weeks to declare one of our sister organizations “not a news organization” and to tell the rest of us not to treat them like a news organization. Can you explain why it’s appropriate for the White House to decide that a news organization is not one.” Gibbs couldn't explain it. And even the venerable Helen Thomas, who is as liberal as they come, has chastised Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, for trying to control and manipulate the media.

This week, however, the White House went too far. According to an article by the NY Times; The Obama administration on Thursday tried to make "pay czar" Kenneth Feinberg available for interviews to every member of the White House pool except Fox News. But to their suprise ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN all stood up to the White House’s and in a united front said either all of us, including Fox interviews Feinburg or else none of us will.

Perhaps the MSM finally remembered the Freedom of the Press and how the media is supposed to react to being manipulated even if the person manipulating them is ordered by Obama, himself. And how did Obama’s administration react to this surprising stand? By punishing all of the networks! They said that by not including the Fox network each journalist would only have two minutes for their interview instead of the five minutes as promised when they were excluding Fox. How childish can you get? And doesn't the President have more important issues to worry about, like two wars, increasing unemployment, etc. etc.

I am proud of the MSM for finally standing up to the White House’s strong arm tactics but saddened to discover that I couldn’t find a single MSM article about what happened except for the NY Times. Even if the MSM are afraid to admit they came to Fox’s aid, at least the big networks took a stance and did the right thing. And that’s a good start.