It hasn't been the best week for Robert Gibbs, President Obama's Press Secretary.
On Monday, he told NBC News' Chuck Todd that we should "begin to judge [Obama's stimulus package] now". Take a look:
Fair enough, Mr. Gibbs. With this morning's news that 467,000 jobs were lost in June and that the unemployment rate has climbed to a 26-year high of 9.5%, I don't think many people will judge the Obama stimulus plan to have been successful thus far.
Yesterday wasn't a very good day for Gibbs, either. When the White House Press Corps realized that Obama's "online town hall" about health care yesterday didn't represent as much "change" as Candidate Obama promised to deliver, things got a little testy during Gibbs' daily briefing. You see, the questioners at yesterday's town hall were hand-picked (and their questions were pre-screened) by the White House -- something that sometimes occurred for President Bush's town hall meetings, but for which Bush was routinely excoriated by the Democrats and the media alike. To my great shock, CBS News' Chip Reid called Obama and his team out on their hypocrisy, eventually aided by the always cantankerous Helen Thomas. I give a lot of credit to Reid and Thomas for doing something that the mainstream media have largely failed to do thus far: actually challenging the Obama Administration on what is now a series of hedges, broken promises, and examples of the "same old Washington politics" against which Obama so frequently railed on the campaign trail last year. Here's yesterday's exchange between Gibbs, Reid and Thomas:
So again, it's been a hard week for Robert Gibbs, and amid increasing signs that President Obama's proverbial honeymoon -- with the American people and with the mainstream media -- might be nearing its end, perhaps Gibbs should prepare for more tough weeks to come.
Note: Commenter "craig" indicated that he was waiting for me to weigh in on South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford and his utterly disgraceful and increasingly bizarre behavior. I intend to do so in the near future, but quite frankly, I don't think we've seen the end of this story yet. Whether there will be additional revelations from Mr. Sanford (let's all hope not) or whether he ends up resigning in the coming days (I hope so), we haven't reached the conclusion yet. Once we do, I'll happily share my thoughts. Thanks for the comment, craig, and thanks to all for reading.
There is no doubt Gibbs' arrogance will continue to get him in trouble with the press. There is a thin line between cocky and confident and I tend to think an increasing amount of the public will believe he is on the wrong side of that line if he continues to hold his tough (and at times baseless) stance with the media...My prediction - he will not finish Obama's first term.
ReplyDeleteAlso, thanks for the special shout out. I look forward to your insights on the matter of the 5 day Buenos Aires holiday.
And you are welcome for reading...You provide great insights coupled with compelling prose. I enjoy it; thank you.
stay adventurous,
Craig