Robert Gibbs

Robert L. Gibbs (b. March 29, 1971) is an American political consultant. Gibbs is the communications director for U.S. Senator Barack Obama and Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. According to news reports, he will be named White House press secretary to the new President. Gibbs, who has worked with Obama since 2004, was press secretary of John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign and has previously specialized in Senate campaigns, having served as communications director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and for four individual Senate campaigns, including those of Obama in 2004 and Fritz Hollings in 1998. Gibbs was also the press secretary of Representative Bob Etheridge. Gibbs received criticism in 2007 for his connection with a 527 political group which launched attack ads against presidential candidate Howard Dean during the 2004 presidential election.

Style

He challenges reporters in phone calls and emails, which are done in a brash manner.

U.S. presidential election, 2004

Early in the 2004 presidential campaign, Gibbs was the press secretary of Democratic candidate John Kerry. On November 11, 2003, Gibbs resigned "in reaction to the firing of Jim Jordan, abruptly let go by Kerry Sunday night." Gibbs was replaced by Stephanie Cutter, a former spokeswoman for Ted Kennedy. After leaving the Kerry campaign, Gibbs became spokesman for Americans for Jobs, Health Care and Progressive Values, a Democratic group formed to stop the 2004 presidential campaign of Howard Dean.

U.S. presidential election, 2008

The appointment of Gibbs by Obama to the post of communications chief was met with mild controversy by some critics in the Democratic National Committee, who cited Gibbs' role in the aggressive campaign tactics used to block the nomination of Howard Dean in the the 2004 race. Obama, however, referred to Gibbs as his "one-person Southern focus group" and welcomed him as part of his close-knit team that included strategist David Axelrod, campaign director David Plouffe, and research director Devorah Adler. In his communications role, Gibbs became known as "the enforcer" because of his aggressive rapid-response methods for countering disinformation tactics from opponents. Gibbs assumed responsibility for "shaping the campaign message, responding to the 24/7 news cycle, schmoozing with the press and fighting back when he disagrees with its reporting." As the chief intermediary between the Obama campaign and the press, Gibbs sought to counter the Republican National Committee's opposition research tactics against Barack Obama in early 2007. He is largely responsible for not making Obama as available to the media as some felt he should be.

Gibbs adopted a policy of rapid response to claims by conservative news outlets that questioned Obama's religious upbringing. In reponse to the "Obama is a Muslim" meme suggested by these claims, Gibbs disseminated information to other news networks that Obama is not nor has ever been Muslim. At the time, Gibbs said, "These malicious, irresponsible charges are precisely the kind of politics the American people have grown tired of."

After comments by George W. Bush to the Israeli Knesset questioning Obama's foreign policy platform's focus on international diplomacy, Gibbs responded, calling Bush's comments "astonishing" and "an unprecedented attack on foreign soil." Gibbs argued that Bush's policy amounted to "cowboy diplomacy" that had been discounted by Bush's own Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, and quoted with Gates' own words: "We need to figure out a way to develop some leverage. . . and then sit down and talk...if there is going to be a discussion, then they need something , too. We can't go to a discussion and be completely the demander, with them not feeling that they need anything from us."

He was widely blamed by news media executives for "holding hostage" reporters, while Obama and Hillary Clinton met for the first time after a heavily contested Democratic primary season. He countered back, “It wasn't an attempt to deceive in any way... It was just private meetings.”

In his efforts to combat claims by the John McCain campaign of ties between Obama and Weather Underground cofounder Bill Ayers in the weeks before the election, Gibbs raised his own national profile when he confronted Fox News Network's Sean Hannity about his repeatedly bringing up the subject of Ayers during the interview. On the air, Gibbs challenged Hannity's attempts to associate Obama with a terrorist because Obama once served on a charitable board with Ayers. Gibbs countered that not only was the board also comprised of Republican McCain supporters, Hannity himself had hosted Andy Martin who had previously made comments interpreted as anti-semitic. Amidst contentious debate, Gibbs argued that if Hannity's claim that Obama is a terrorist due to an association with Ayers is accurate, one would then have to accept that Hannity is an anti-semite because of his association with Martin. The video of Gibbs's exchange with Hannity received considerable air time on networks other than Fox in the ensuing days. Two days after Barack Obama`s win in the 2008 presidental election, Politico reported that Gibbs will be named White House Press Secretary.

Quotes by Robert Gibbs

• "The best way to fight rumor is with fact. If you don't fight rumor, it becomes truth." to Fox News reporter, June 12, 2008

Personal

Gibbs is a 1989 graduate of Auburn High School in Auburn, Alabama and graduated cum laude from North Carolina State University with a degree in political science. Gibbs lives in Alexandria, VA and is married to an attorney and they have a five-year-old son.

Sources

• SourceWatch available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
• Chris Cillizza, "Barack Obama's Impressive Team" The Fix/Washington Post, January 16, 2007.
• Monica Langley, "Meet Obama's Media 'Enforcer'", Wall Street Journal, August 28, 2008.
• Biography and News