Filed under: News, Politics, President Obama
No one has been a more visible spokesperson for President Obama than 39-year-old Alabama-native Robert Lane Gibbs.
With his stocky build and bulldog demeanor, Gibbs has fielded every query imaginable at news briefings about the president with admirable loyalty, calm and humor.
But that will come to an end next month when he will leave his post next month to work as a strategist and speech maker for Obama's upcoming re-election campaign.
From defending health care reform legislation to smoothing over Obama's infrequent slips of the lips, Gibbs had become a regular presence to millions of political-news junkies across the nation.
While seeing a new face explain the president's policies at briefings will take some getting used to, the change of presidential press secretaries is fairly routine. The job requires extremely long hours of daily preparation and tremendous attention to detail that burns out the best spokespeople.
So far, vice presidential spokesman Jay Carney and Gibbs' top deputies Bill Burton and Josh Earnest are being mentioned as possible successors.
Gibbs' departure could be the first of a few at the White House, which is still smarting after getting beat down at the polls in November's election.
White House Chief of Staff Peter Rouse could also be replaced in the coming months with William Daley, former U.S. commerce secretary under President Bill Clinton, who is rumored to be in line for the chief of staff gig.