Harry Shearer: Robert Gibbs Visits "Karzai Talk" (audio)

Harry Shearer (Le Show), audio (06:02).

Howie P.S.: More evidence that our best political commentary now comes from the comedic sector. Scroll down to the "Karzai Talk" button.

Daley reportedly 'denied Robert Gibbs key role'

TelegraphUK:

Mr Gibbs had intended to remain within the Obama kitchen cabinet as a presidential counsellor and senior adviser after stepping aside as the public face of the administration next month.

But Mr Daley, a Chicago businessman and politician, is understood to want to break the stranglehold of long-time political cronies on a president who is frequently accused of insularity. MORE...

Ari Berman in The Nation: "Forget Gibbs. Bring Back Dean as DNC Chair"

Ari Berman (The Nation):

As it stands, the Democratic base is restless, local party leaders are anxious and Democratic candidates are facing major losses in November. Bringing back Dean, an independent voice who can fight for the grassroots, wouldn’t right all of that, but it would show that Obama is serious about empowering a true team of rivals, not just a bunch of Washington insiders. MORE...

Jane Hamsher on the Gibbs attack: "We are echoing the complaints that the American people have." (video)

firedoglake, video (10:27):

FireDogLake founder Jane Hamsher visits CNN's Reliable Sources - full segment Visit: http://firedoglake.com

Howie P.S.: There's enough "cable chatter" in this clip to induce a mild case of STFU.

The Scent of Rhambo---Obama and the "professional left"

Mike Lux:

Here's the thing that drives me most crazy, though: the only thing making the Obama White House take the huge gamble of not reaching out to the professional left is their own arrogance. Engaging the "professional left" would be easy to do if they cared about it at all, and had a strategy to do it. In the Clinton White House, that presidency of NAFTA, failed health care, the 1994 election fiasco, and "triangulation", the progressive community- the professional left as well as progressive voters- progressives never deserted Clinton. Through his two elections, special prosecutors, the Lewinsky mess and impeachment, the Democratic base stayed loyal to and enthusiastic about Bill Clinton (even when he didn't always deserve it). Why? Because Bill Clinton cared about having a good relationship with progressives, and because we had a strategy for working effectively with them. President Clinton frequently asked me about who was happy with us and who was disgruntled in the progressive world, and we made sure to bring in everyone in the latter category for meetings and social events at the White House. At the height of the NAFTA fight, we organized a dinner for labor leaders where the President hung out with them for a long, social evening, telling them in his remarks "I know we are in a fight right now, but I want you to know that my White House will always be your house too, that we always will be friends." We made sure progressives always had chances to have serious input into policy development. Whenever we had bad news to deliver to progressive groups on any issue big or small, we reached out to them before the announcement, talked about how to make the damage hurt less, and talked about what we could do to help them on other issues. And whenever there was good news, we made sure the folks who cared about it were part of the celebration.

Here's the other thing: other Democratic politicians in 2010 get the need to work effectively with progressives. I have had my share of disagreements with Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid, but they and their staff have never failed to work constructively and conscientiously with me and other progressives I know. This is politics 101 as far as I am concerned, but to my knowledge, this White House isn't engaging in much of it. I am on the board of many different progressives groups, and know a wide assortment of folks in the blogosphere, in organizations, in the progressive donor world, on Capitol Hill, and I rarely hear about any kind of high-level outreach of this sort going on. One other important point on all this: what worries me the most is that I am as insider-y as a person can get. I have known Rahm for 30 years, Axelrod and Plouffe for over 20. I have been a client of Jim Margolis, Anita Dunn, and Axelrod's firms. I was a co-founder of Strategy Group, the Chicago based firm that was one of the closest inner circle firms in the Obama Presidential campaign. I have worked in the White House, and I even worked on the Obama transition. I am one of the professional left (not at all the only one, by the way) who, in spite of my disappointments with some of the compromises made, ended up supporting, enthusiastically working for, and praising Obama on all those initiatives mentioned above. Now I know that some folks in the White House are mad at me and have shut me out because I have been critical at times of this White House, but I still have to think: if the relationship with the "professional left" is as shaky as it is, and someone like me is not being reached out to much or asked to help, what about all those bloggers and progressive media people and organizations who don't have much in the way of inside connections? It worries the hell out of me, and it ought to be worrying the White House. MORE...

Robert Gibbs: my attack on left was "inartful"

Greg Sargent:

Gibbs's general message seems to be that the left's criticism risks being counterproductive and could imperil the Dems' broader agenda. But at the same time, in that last graf Gibbs is clearly conceding that White House attacks on the left are equally counterproductive. MORE...

Howie P.S.: Wiktionary says

Awkwardly expressed but not necessarily untrue; impolitic; ill-phrased; inexpedient; clumsy.

(Updated) "White House unloads anger over criticism from 'professional left’"

UPDATE: Glenn Greenwald has now delivered a full-on smack down, including suggestions about who will need to be drug-tested if Gibb's rant is to be enforced:

Talking Points Memo reporters, Charlie Savage, the lawyers from EFF, Bob Herbert, Anthony Romero, Russ Feingold, and The New York Times Editorial Board.

Sam Youngman (The Hill):

The White House is simmering with anger at criticism from liberals who say President Obama is more concerned with deal-making than ideological purity.

During an interview with The Hill in his West Wing office, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs blasted liberal naysayers, whom he said would never regard anything the president did as good enough.

“I hear these people saying he’s like George Bush. Those people ought to be drug tested,” Gibbs said. “I mean, it’s crazy.”

The press secretary dismissed the “professional left” in terms very similar to those used by their opponents on the ideological right, saying, “They will be satisfied when we have Canadian healthcare and we’ve eliminated the Pentagon. That’s not reality.”

Of those who complain that Obama caved to centrists on issues such as healthcare reform, Gibbs said: “They wouldn’t be satisfied if Dennis Kucinich was president.” MORE...

Howie P.S.: I consider myself a supporter of this President. Afghanistan, financial reform and the public option are still all big, f****ing deals, Robert. Glenn Greenwald Tweets:

In 18 short months, we went from "hold me accountable" to "get drug tested."

Ezra Klein:

I understand why the WH is frustrated by liberal dissatisfaction, but not why they complain about it in interviews.

Bob Cesca:

Sherrod was fired when the far-right freaked out. When some on the left criticize POTUS you say they're on drugs. Explain?

"Ed Schultz Tells Robert Gibbs He’s ‘Full Of Sh*t’ And ‘You’re Losing Your Base’ " (with video) (Updated)

UPDATE: "Gibbs: Ed Schultz Misleads Viewers To “Get People To Watch His Show” (Greg Sargent).

Think Progress, with video (17:28):

Last night, MSNBC’s Ed Schultz spoke at Minnesota progressive talk radio AM950’s Blue State Bash at the Minneapolis Convention Center. During his remarks, Schultz revealed that he recently had a testy confrontation with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs (Gibbs appeared on Schultz’s show this past Thursday). “Mr. Gibbs and I had quite a conversation off the air the other night,” he revealed:

SCHULTZ: I told him he was full of sh*t is what I told him. … And then he gave me the Dick Cheney f-bomb. … I told Robert Gibbs, I said “And I’m sorry you’re swearing at me, but I’m just trying to help you out. I’m telling you you’re losing your base. Do you understand you’re losing your base?”

Schultz also noted that April 7 will be his first anniversary of his TV show, a date that coincides with Sarah Palin’s scheduled appearance on behalf of Michele Bachmann in Minnesota. Schultz — resides in Minnesota — made this pledge to the audience:

If all of you here will make a commitment to me tonight that if I bring my TV show right across the street from where they’re doing their rally, you’ll all show up. [applause] That a deal? Ok, we’ll do it. [...]

We need to get rid of Michele Bachmann. [applause] Any congressional member who thinks that members of Congress should be investigated for their anti-American views doesn’t understand what voting is all about.

ED Show: "Massachusetts turns Brown" (video)

MSNBC-ED Show, video (13:45).

Howie P.S.: "Waterloo" moments, health care, independents, etc. are the topics as ED talks with Robert Gibbs.

"Fire Robert Gibbs...Or At Least Make Him Apologize to Howard Dean"

Miles Mogulescu (HuffPo):

Either Presidential Press Secretary Robert Gibbs went off the reservation and was not speaking for President Obama when he attacked Howard Dean's character and sanity for daring to criticize the Senate health "reform" bill which Obama wants passed; or more frighteningly, Gibbs was speaking for President Obama.

If Gibbs wasn't speaking for Obama, Gibbs should be fired, or at least called on the carpet by Obama and ordered to apologize publicly to Gov. Dean -- Gibbs went a long way towards alienating millions of people in the Democratic base who helped elect President Obama and who agree with Gov. Dean that a mandate to buy private insurance without, at a minimum, competition from a robust public option is bad policy and bad politics.

If however, Gibbs was speaking for President Obama, it appears that the White House has concluded it doesn't care about Obama's own base. In that case Obama's campaign promises for meaningful change are increasingly a pipe dream and Democratic prospects in the 2010 Congressional elections, and even in Obama's 2012 reelection campaign, are even more worrisome than it has seemed.

Whatever you think of Gov. Dean, he speaks for many Democratic voters and activists in his criticisms of the Senate bill. His critique of the Senate health care bill in the past few days on television and in an Op-Ed piece in The Washington Post is cogent and rational, whether you agree with it or not. Moreover, his pioneering use of the internet in his 2004 Presidential primary campaign, and his 50-state strategy as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, did much to lay the basis for Obama's victory in previously red states and for Democratic gains in the Congress in 2006 and 2008. Obama owes him a debt of gratitude.

When asked about criticism of the Senate health care bill, Gibbs could easily have said that President Obama respects Gov. Dean and is grateful for his efforts to build the Democratic Party and his work for health care reform, but respectfully disagrees with Gov. Dean on the Senate bill. Instead, Gibbs chose to attack Dean's mental stability, character, and knowledge of the issue, suggesting that Dean was irrational and didn't understand the bill. "I don't think any rational person would say killing the bill makes a whole lot of sense," said Gibbs, both questioning Dean's sanity, as well as mischaracterizing Deans position, which is not to kill the bill but to use reconciliation to pass the good parts of the bill instead of caving into Joe Lieberman--whom the White House has never publicly criticized.

Increasingly, the Obama administration seems to think it can throw the concerns of its base supporters overboard and rely on Rahm Emanuel's version of Karl Rove's "K Street strategy" to buy elections with hefty campaign contributions from insurance companies, drug companies, and Wall Street. That's a prescription for failure.

Money certainly matters in politics, but you also can't win if you alienate your own strongest supporters. If the base--what Dean once called "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party"-- is unmotivated to campaign for Democrats because it feels disrespected and because campaign promises of fundamental change have been thrown overboard, and if many base Democratic voters don't bother to vote, Democrats will be devastated in the 2010 midterms, and Obama will have to try to govern either with a smaller majority, or even a minority, in Congress.

Obama needs to start mending fences with his base, not further alienating it. A good way to start is either to fire Gibbs for his attacks on the base and one of its important spokesman, Gov. Dean, or make Gibbs publicly apologize.

"Selling Health Care and Iran: WH Briefing" --text with video (03:36)

ABC News, with text and video (03:36).

Howie P.S.: On health care reform, Gibbs says Obama won't "storm the country" but will go "on the road" to present his views.

Barack Obama

Gibbs Laughs Off Pot Questions @ at The White House Press Briefing (with video)

From Ari Melber's "The President's Never-Ending Virtual Town Hall" (The Nation):

During the press secretary's daily briefing on Thursday, Robert Gibbs discovered that the press wanted to pick up where the citizen questions left off. Several reporters pressed for answers to citizen questions that the president had only vaguely addressed. It was an unusually lively exchange--one regular correspondent said it was the least controlled briefing this year.

Obama laughed off the popular questions about marijuana during the town hall--blogger Nancy Scola's Mary Jane Rule holds that pot questions always win in open web forums--but several journalists had serious follow-ups.

"When the president said he doesn't think legalizing marijuana would give the economy a boost, was he giving a political answer or an economic answer?," asked one reporter, continuing, "does he have economic numbers to back that up?" First Gibbs tried to joke about a lack of government studies on that front, but the reporter pressed on: "What about medicinal marijuana?" Gibbs referred that angle to the Justice Department.

Then an NBC reporter protested to ask why Obama even mentioned marijuana, stating, erroneously, that "no one asked about it online." Gibbs noted that the question actually was popular, but then he attempted to downplay the support as the product of an "interest group." Some reporters swallowed that unsubstantiated claim, including Friday's Washington Post, but others pushed back, such as the Washington Times' Jon Ward:

You said from the podium a couple minutes ago that interest groups drove up the questions on the web site about marijuana. But the President and Secretary of State have also said in recent days that demand domestically is driving the problems on the border. You seem to be contradicting yourself a little bit and trying to say that the web site issue was an interest group issue...does the White House think that this is a major issue on the minds of the American people? Obviously you think demand is high.

Gibbs pivoted to express the administration's support for Hillary Clinton's analysis of the drug trade, but said it was a "stretch" to ask about marijuana as an economic stimulus. Ward did not let up, however, pressing Gibbs to articulate what the administration would do to "drive down [narcotics] demand."

The conversation continued, as journalists fleshed out and sharpened queries on an otherwise neglected topic, all because a few thousand citizens put it on Thursday's agenda.

Howie P.S.: The way the pot issue is handled here @ (22:30) is a good insight into how the Obama message machine deals with other "touchy" matters, except "laughing off the question" is most particularly in play. Here's the video (46:28) of the entire press briefing:

Barack Obama

Chuck Todd: Gitmo questions, Gibbs meets the press (video)

MSNBC, 'Morning Joe,' video, (04:13).

Howie P.S.: Some may think Obama "threads the needle" to appease both sides. On the other hand, he may genuinely believe that his course on Gitmo (taking some from both sides) is the right one.

Barack Obama

"Gibbs Prepares for His Starring Role"

Jake Tapper (ABC News):

Can the Former Political Knife-Fighter Adapt to the More Genteel White House Podium?--Looking back at the tumultuous, ultimately victorious year past, former Barack Obama campaign senior aide and incoming White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs didn't hesitate when he was asked to name his toughest political moment.

It came, he told ABC News in an exclusive interview, "right after we'd clinched the nomination and the president-elect is going to meet with Sen. [Hillary] Clinton."

Gibbs was part of a bit of Obama campaign misdirection in which the reporters covering the then-Illinois senator, flew on the Democrat's plane from Washington back to Chicago while the candidate stayed behind to secretly meet with his former opponent in the home of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

Replaying the incident in his mind, Gibbs recalled, "I know that the then-candidate Barack Obama is not going to be on our flight home to Chicago. But, the press doesn't know that. And I held in the car and I got on the plane and right when I got on the plane, we basically moved to taxi and about 15 seconds later, the press realized that the candidate wasn't on the plane. And I knew that was going to be a long ride home for an hour-and-a-half flight. And that we were going to have a lot of explaining to do."

Between the Obama team and the media sat a section of Secret Service agents. On his way back to tell the media why the candidate was not on the plane, Gibbs stopped to speak to them. He "told our detail leader that, 'If I'm not back in 15 minutes, get the guns out and come get me out of there.'"

Gibbs now says the campaign could "have handled it differently. I think we were in a very tough position either way. ... I understood the pitfalls of what were undertaking. The hardest part was, it was a decision that was made, but I was the one that had to implement."

The incident made for a contentious moment between the media and the Obama campaign, and it's one that Gibbs was clearly thinking about as he sat down to talk with ABC News about his new job as White House press secretary.

"A lot of the advice that I've gotten from former press secretaries," Gibbs said, is "you have to be seen as an honest broker that can discuss why this decision was made and how it was made. To explain it to a larger audience via the press. That's a role that a press secretary has to play."

In the briefing room, he said, a press secretary is seen as "a real honest broker."

Born to Auburn University library employees in 1971, the bespectacled Alabaman has worked for Obama since his Senate campaign in 2004.

Known as a bit of a political knife-fighter on Capitol Hill for his work as something of a rogue operative after he left Sen. John Kerry's campaign amid a staff shake-up, Gibbs became a close adviser to Obama in the Senate and took an even more prominent role in the senator's 2008 presidential campaign.

Now, however, he is preparing for the actual act of governing, which can be even tougher. Is he prepared for the intense scrutiny of his every word? Is he ready to serve as a media piñata? And, given that he could likely have served as a senior adviser to the president-elect, why would he want the gig?

"I think it's a tremendously important time in our country's history," he said earnestly. "And if I can help the president through the role of a spokesperson that talks to the country every day in a briefing room or through the work of reporters, that doing that and furthering an agenda that will bring about change and move the country forward, that's a hard opportunity to say no to."

And is he ready?

"Look, I don't know if you ever become ready until you do it," he said.

Having recently rehearsed a few practice briefings in what his colleagues on the Obama transition team jokingly referred to as "press secretary school," Gibbs said, "becoming prepared for this and going through ... a little of the practice of this, it's really unlike anything you've ever done. You know, it's not like a cable interview that lasts four or five minutes. This is something that can last 45 minutes. And you could get questions on virtually any topic at any point.

"When you think about it, it's a little daunting, sure," he acknowledged.

Obama was recently asked by a reporter for the New York Times Magazine which character from Obama's favorite movie "The Godfather" Gibbs most reminds him of. Obama suggested the loyal, soft-spoken family lawyer, or consigliere, Tom Hagen, as played by Robert Duval.

"And I've seen a little bit of Sonny in him once in a while," Obama added, referring to the hot-tempered oldest Corleone son whose emotion got the best of him.

"There's no question that everybody has different styles," Gibbs said. "And I think the president-elect, in that article, said that, you know, there's times in which I can be combative for his point of view. And I don't doubt that that's at times going to happen."

ABC News solicited advice for Gibbs from three recent press secretaries Dana Perino and Scott McClellan from the Bush White House, and Joe Lockhart from Bill Clinton's White House. Gibbs then responded to some of their suggestions.

"I think the biggest challenge any press secretary faces if they've done the campaign is to transition out of the idea that every day is political combat, where you're trying to promote your candidate and by either covertly or overtly, denigrate the other candidate in the American public's mind, and really get to this idea of governing," Lockhart said.

Is that going to be tough for Gibbs?

"You assume different roles at different times," Gibbs said. "I think one of the things that Joe also talks about is, again, there's this range of issues that you're speaking on behalf of the president and the administration on each and every day. You know, it's a little bit less what's going on in the polls and maybe the one central argument that you may be having with a political opponent on any given day."

Suggested Perino: "I think one of the best pieces of advice I ever got from somebody -- I mean, Ari Fleischer, the first press secretary under the Bush administration -- was to not take the questions in the briefing room personally. And that can be hard sometimes, especially when you care deeply about your president. It can sometimes feel like they're coming after you or coming after him through you. And I think the most important thing to remember is to not take it personally."

Gibbs suggested that was a point well taken.

"You have to every day understand that everybody has a job to do," he said. "And anybody that questions the administration, if I'm standing at the podium, or vice versa, I think does that because they have a job to do in covering this administration, and then the workings of a real representative democracy. I do think it's important that you try not to take the questions personally."

It was pointed out that there may have been some times during the campaign when he probably took it personally a little bit.

"Sure," he said. "I don't think there's any doubt&.My guess is if you took every one of [the tough questions] personally, you probably wouldn't make it through a whole month without becoming so enraged that you didn't want to talk to anybody in the press. And I don't think that's probably a very good way of operating."

Scott McClellan suggested that Gibbs limit the number of briefings that he does personally within a week and bring in other senior administration officials, to do briefings so as to help the administration get its more substantive message out.

Gibbs said former White House press secretary Mike McCurry gave him similar advice and he agrees.

"The American people are obviously very, very smart," Gibbs said. "They're well ahead on virtually everything. They're well ahead of their representatives in Washington. They understand that the economy is bad, that it's likely to get worse before it gets better. And that this isn't going to get better overnight."

More substantive briefings might help "the American people understand where he or she, if it's a Cabinet official, where they want to take the country, what kinds of plans that they want to implement to help make the lives of average everyday voters a little bit better."

Gibbs suggested that the Bush administration -- "particularly as it relates to the economic recovery or the money that's been used to help banks and to relieve the stresses on our financial system -- if they could do it all over again, I bet one of the things that they might tell you is they probably needed a stronger communications strategy for letting people know and understand how this was going to work and what this money was going to be used for."

Gibbs said that in light of recent reports of insufficient oversight of the $700 billion allocated to help stabilize the nation's economic systems, and reports that some of that money might be spent on executive bonuses, the Obama administration will try to shed more light on the allocation of the funds after taking office.

"Absolutely," he said. "There's no question that this and many other economic problems are going to land on President-elect Obama's plate on Jan. 20. We're a little hamstrung because of the notion that there is only one president at a time."

Lockhart reminded Gibbs to be careful in his words.

"You know, one of the things is that there is tremendous power in everything you say," said the former Clinton spokesman. "As the White House press secretary you're speaking for the leader of the free world and the most powerful institution in the world, the U.S. government. I think I had had the job for a couple of days and someone had made some allegation against the president, I very casually told a reporter that this guy was a liar. It became a big headline and the next thing you know I was sued for $10 million. ...

"You can casually, again, walking down the hallway run into a reporter and make a remark that can set off World War III or tank the stock market."

"At least the expectations aren't that great," Gibbs joked.

Is he ready?

"I'm in the process of getting ready for it," he said. "I don't think I'd be here if people didn't have confidence in my ability to do this."

Can he watch his tongue?

"I think I can," Gibbs said. "I am sure there will be many that will test that premise. I sure there will be people who will keep this tape and play it back when I don't. But again, I look at this as a tremendous honor, what the president-elect has given to me. And I understand -- I think I understand what's at stake, and I understand that this isn't about me, that it's about something far bigger than that."

Perino also advised Gibbs that the toughest job is not defending "the president to the press. But an even tougher job sometimes is defending the press to the president, and speaking up for the press and making sure that they have access and get the answers that they need."

Gibbs insisted that the president-elect respects the job of the media, though he acknowledged there were times he thought reporters too focused on silly items.

"We were watching hundreds of thousands of people lose their jobs, and we were debating the meaning of the phrase 'lipstick on a pig,'" Gibbs recalled. "But let me use another sort of colloquialism. Hopefully this won't be maligned quite as much as that one is. But I think what Dana says there is, 'You get more flies than you do with vinegar.'"

McClellan, who famously complained about being misled by former senior Bush aides Lewis "Scooter" Libby and Karl Rove during the investigation into the leak of Valerie Plames' identity as a CIA operative, advised Gibbs: "You want to be able to vouch for yourself and for the president, but be careful about vouching for others.

"When you're not in that room when someone was maybe involved in something, you need to be very careful about trying to speak for them," McClellan said. "Let that person either speak for him or herself or make sure you carefully couch how you phrase something, saying that those individuals assured me that they were doing such and such or not doing such and such.

"You want to be very careful about that because when you're not there someone may tell you one thing but you can't know with absolute certainty and so you want to be careful about who you vouch for beyond yourself and the president."

But Gibbs seemed unworried.

"I believe that the people ... the president-elect has been able to assemble in a government that will take over on the 20th of January, I think we've put together a caliber of people that not only that I trust, but certainly have the trust of the president-elect, and I think that's extremely important," he said.

But isn't it inherent in what President-elect Obama has done with his Cabinet selecting so many strong personalities in his "Team of Rivals," including four former primary opponents that one will maybe occasionally wander off the reservation?

"I think the far greater risk is assembling a group of people that whenever the president opens their mouth they all nod their heads in agreement," Gibbs said. The president-elect "wants and expects there to be disagreement within that room."

But "there is one person in that room that is going to make the ultimate and final decision. That's going to be President-elect Barack Obama," he said. "And despite the arguments that you may have in the room about the direction or the decisions that you make on different issues, he expects each and every one of us to get behind the decision that's ultimately made, because he is the president of the United States."

Barack Obama

"Meet Obama’s Media ‘Enforcer’"

Robert Gibbs (right) with David Axelrod.
Wall Street Journal (vida MediaChannel.org):

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Robert Gibbs leans into presidential candidate Barack Obama at an airplane-maintenance hangar scheduled for more layoffs and whips out an index card where he has scrawled the latest data on how many Americans have lost health-care insurance in the workplace.

“I’ve got it, I know,” says Sen. Obama, who playfully adds: “That is why I’m running for president.”

But Mr. Gibbs pushes on, even as the senator heads toward gathered workers he is about to address. “These are just-released statistics,” Mr. Gibbs says. “Use them to hit hard on the economy, and we’ll play to the news.”

Just as Sen. Obama is introduced, Mr. Gibbs, pleased that his candidate will be appearing before blue-collar workers “rather than in some high-school gym,” rushes to the new-media campaign aide to video Sen. Obama with the order: “Get this up on You Tube fast.”

As the Obama campaign enters a crucial phase, beset by tightened polling numbers and the prospect of a tough race for the next two months, Mr. Gibbs has emerged as Sen. Obama’s advocate-in-chief with the media, and therefore the voters. The 37-year-old is in charge of shaping his message, responding to the 24/7 news cycle, schmoozing with the press and fighting back when he disagrees with its reporting — which has won him the label of “the enforcer.” Mr. Gibbs, who says he tries “to attract more flies with honey than vinegar” most of the time, confirms, “I work the referees a little bit if they’re unfair or inaccurate. The other side is working on them, too….I’m a protector of the image.”

Most important, Mr. Gibbs must keep the candidate, sometimes known for being lackluster and cranky when he is tired, upbeat. As the aide who was with Sen. Obama at the 2004 Democratic convention speech that started it all, he has been by his side nearly every day since, even accompanying the Obama family on their recent Hawaiian vacation. (On the last night there, Barack and Michelle Obama sent Mr. Gibbs and his wife to the Obamas’ favorite restaurant and babysat their five-year-old son.)

“Robert is the guy I want in the foxhole with me during incoming fire,” Sen. Obama says in an interview. “If I’m wrong, he challenges me. He’s not intimidated by me.” As to whether Mr. Gibbs keeps him happy, “he never does,” Sen. Obama jokes.

Mr. Gibbs, an Alabama native whom Sen. Obama dubs his “one-person Southern focus group,” is part of the close-knit team on the campaign trail with chief strategist David Axelrod, national trip director Marvin Nicholson and “body man” Reggie Love. On the campaign plane, he sits in one of the four club chairs in the front private compartment with the candidate. Once, on a dare from another campaign aide, he bench-pressed 250 pounds at the gym when Sen. Obama was working out. He says he thinks about winning the presidential election every minute of their 18-hour days.

After serving as Sen. Obama’s communications chief during his 2004 run for the Senate, Mr. Gibbs moved into the same role for the presidential campaign. But in the spring of 2007, when Democratic rival Hillary Clinton was far ahead in the polls despite the Illinois senator’s unexpectedly strong fund raising, Sen. Obama was falling flat on the stump, even with his oratorical skills. Mr. Gibbs met with campaign manager David Plouffe and Mr. Axelrod to discuss “why Barack wasn’t happy or firing on all cylinders,” he recalls. “Let me go out with him and see if I can help,” Mr. Gibbs volunteered, because he had traveled earlier with Sen. Obama frequently to his home state of Illinois and even on an African trip. Once out, he never returned to Chicago headquarters.

During the opening days of the Democratic convention, Mr. Gibbs has focused on putting the best spin on his man and his message.

When he pitched Mrs. Obama’s speech to the TV-network anchors and producers, he laid on thick the hard-luck story of Mrs. Obama’s childhood when her blue-collar father had multiple sclerosis, and Fox News anchor Brit Hume cut him off, jokingly saying, “Stop there — you’ve got my vote.” Mr. Gibbs replied, “Well. I’m done here!”

When another Fox anchor, Chris Wallace, asked how to pronounce the last name of Sen. Obama’s half-sister, Mr. Gibbs didn’t know. “I just call her Maya.” Later, Mr. Gibbs spotted a banner reading “Rednecks for Obama.” Delighted to chat with fellow Southerners, Mr. Gibbs took one of their bumper stickers saying the same thing, and promised, “I’ll put this up in the campaign plane!” On Monday night backstage with Mrs. Obama, he hugged her as she came off the stage with daughter Sasha in her arms. Sen. Obama emailed Messrs. Plouffe and Gibbs, “I thought my wife was pretty damn good.”

Early Tuesday, he headed to Kansas City to join Sen. Obama on the stump. At the Denver airport, he woke up his attorney wife to tell her his next destination and to give “a high five to my guy,” their son. On the way to the event here, Mr. Gibbs worked his cellphone and ran through about a hundred emails. Even as Sen. Obama spoke to the airplane maintenance workers, Mr. Gibbs jumped behind the rope lines to encourage the traveling press and local media outlets to take note that Sen. Obama was coming out swinging against Republican rival John McCain on the economy and trying out lines that he would use at Thursday night’s convention speech.

Then he hopped into the Obama motorcade to its next destination — having not eaten or gone to the bathroom for eight hours.

Barack Obama