BUH-BYE, ROBERT GIBBS
EmailFrom Jon Garcia and Jake Tapper:
As Speaker John Boehner heralded the arrival of the 112th Congress on Capitol Hill, President Obama’s Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was announcing his departure from the other end of Pennsylvania Ave, the latest move as Obama shakes up his West Wing line up. Come February, there’ll be a new face at the press room podium.
“It is an honor and a privilege to stand here, to work inside this building, to serve your country, to work for a president that I admire as much as President Barack Obama, … whatever your length of service here, it is temporary in the long and wonderful history of our country,” Gibbs told reporters at his regular briefing. “What I'm going to do next is step back a little bit, recharge some,” he said.
“This is a tough place to work. … I think having new voices and having fresh voices, some of those voices that are coming back from having taken a couple of years off, are an important part of this process,” Gibbs said.
Gibbs said he didn’t have an exact date for his departure, but recharging won’t be the only thing on his mind, telling reporters that he will continue to advise Obama, make speeches, be an advocate for Obama’s agenda and eventually become a paid consultant for the reelection campaign. And he wouldn’t rule out working with corporate clients he was “comfortable with” even as he worked as a paid advisor to the reelection campaign.
He asked, tongue firmly in cheek, if the Dallas Cowboys had found a new coach. And he “wouldn’t close the door” on returning to an Obama 2nd term, but joked he’d available to be ambassador to Italy. And don’t expect Gibbs to pen a book anytime soon, either.
Gibbs vowed his replacement would be chosen before his departure and contenders include Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton and VP Biden’s Communications Dir. Jay Carney.
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If it were really Bob Gibbs saying it, it would come out more like this:
Buh, er, um, uh, er, buh, buh, bye.
Posted by: Dave | January 5, 2011, 5:28 pm 5:28 pm
“BUH-BYE Robert Gibbs” is music to my ears.
In 2012, it will be “BUH-BYE Obama” and that will make me happier than a snake in the sun.
Posted by: my name is Peggy | January 5, 2011, 6:09 pm 6:09 pm
Before anybody says Bye to Obama the Republicans are going to need to say Hello to an electable candidate for President….whom there has been no sign of so far.
Posted by: Skip | January 5, 2011, 6:53 pm 6:53 pm
Dave, it only seems that way because Jake edits those sounds out of his questions, but leaves them in Gibbs’ answers.
Why Jake does that is anyone’s guess, but there is no doubt that it is a conscious decision to do so.
Posted by: Flash Override | January 5, 2011, 6:56 pm 6:56 pm
“It is an honor and a privilege to stand here, to work inside this building, to serve your country, to work for a president that I admire as much as President Barack Obama, …
To serve your country? How, exactly, does Gibbs think he has done that? By standing behind a podium ducking questions and/or giving run around non-answers? By being smug, childish and at times, rude? By constantly telling the reporters (and through them the American public) “I’ll check on that and get back to you”, but never doing so? Is that how he has served his country? Every current soldier or veteran just shuddered a little bit on that one.
Posted by: Shoe | January 5, 2011, 7:19 pm 7:19 pm
He doesn’t falsely put the ums and uhs in Gibbs’ sentences, so that’s neither here nor there, Flash.
Posted by: Dave | January 5, 2011, 7:41 pm 7:41 pm
Skip,
I’m all in favor of Indiana governor Mitch Daniels. I liked him already, but when Donna Brazile said he was the one candidate she would least like to see run against Obama, that solidified it for me.
Posted by: Dave | January 5, 2011, 7:42 pm 7:42 pm
No he doesn’t Dave. All the ‘ums’ and ‘ers’ actually belong to Gibbs. The fact of the matter is that is how most intelligent people, including Jake Tapper, actually speak when they are thinking on their feet rather than simply repeating canned talking points. The only reason that Gibbs’ speech patterns seem remarkable to you is that the transcripts are deliberately edited to remove those sounds from everyone else, making it appear that Gibbs talks differently. Otherwise, it wouldn’t even have occured to you to mention it.
Posted by: Flash Override | January 5, 2011, 8:52 pm 8:52 pm
I always felt sorry for Gibbs, having to defend the indefensible.
I find it funny that Obama is replacing his spokesperson, as if that will fix his problem.
The problem isn’t the messenger, it’s the message, Barry.
Obama mused that ‘we didn’t get our message out, and the American people didn’t understand what we had tried to do’.
Yes, the American people DID understand. That’s why the Democrats lost big time.
But it’s always more convenient for Democrats like Obama to imply that Americans aren’t smart and that if we’d all just trust smarties like Obama then everything would be alright.
Democrats despise the American people and regard them as stupid. what arrogance
Posted by: Joe White | January 6, 2011, 2:31 am 2:31 am
Thank goodness. I hope we hear and see less of President Obama too.
Posted by: Freedom | January 6, 2011, 9:15 am 9:15 am
I teach for a living and I make a point not to say “um” and “uh”, as it always annoyed me when I was a student, but to just stop for a split second and think about what I want to say. People who say “um” and “uh” when they’re thinking do so because they like to hear themselves talk and have to fill the silence with their voice. It’s not something that ALL people do or something that cannot be controlled. It just takes practice and discipline.
Posted by: Jose | January 6, 2011, 9:17 am 9:17 am
I’m all in favor of Indiana governor Mitch Daniels. I liked him already, but when Donna Brazile said he was the one candidate she would least like to see run against Obama, that solidified it for me.
Posted by: Dave | Jan 5, 2011 7:42:57 PM
Leonhardt interviewed him and both the article and Q& A are worth a look as he’s fairly unspectacular. He’s also not very charismatic, which is meaningful nowadays given our news cycle. The advantage Daniels has is that in comparison to Romney, Palin, Huckabee and Gingrich, he’s unknown. Romney et all, the frontrunners, if you will, are all well known and not well liked with favorability at best in the 30% range. Republicans, in general, continue to be viewed as less popular than one would think given the midterm elections, and given that they won’t do much to change that over the next couple of years, the Republican’s best chance is a fresh candidate (which is why there was such a blip of excitement over an offhand remark by Huntsman.)
Posted by: Alyson | January 6, 2011, 10:06 am 10:06 am
Dave, it only seems that way because Jake edits those sounds out of his questions, but leaves them in Gibbs’ answers.
Why Jake does that is anyone’s guess, but there is no doubt that it is a conscious decision to do so.
Posted by: Flash Override | Jan 5, 2011 6:56:10 PM
I noticed that at the very beginning. Tapper received a lot of hits from his initial tone with Gibbs, which was contrived to be antagonistic in my view. He toned it down a bit after so many people reacted but I think he’s enjoyed keeping in the uhs and ums.
Anyhow, I hope Burton gets the gig now.
Posted by: Alyson | January 6, 2011, 10:09 am 10:09 am
The jerk should have been fired many months ago. Every press man who did not formally and publcly object to the way he treated the the news and the American voters is a suck up Obamaphile.
Posted by: nat turner | January 6, 2011, 11:39 am 11:39 am
All the Obama folk love to uh and um from Gibbs to Michelle and even Hillary. All the time! Sounds dumb for sure.
Posted by: Rufus | January 6, 2011, 1:33 pm 1:33 pm
YEA! I will no longer have to hear Uh uh um uh uh…
Posted by: Uh um Bob | January 27, 2011, 5:24 pm 5:24 pm