Politico: Robert Gibbs gets a lot of laughs in his briefings

[jefferson_dem]

Check out the video the chumps at Politico have put together - http://www.politico.com/singletitlevideo.html?bcpid=1155201977&bctid=24432759001

Comedy hour at the White House?
By: Patrick Gavin
May 27, 2009 04:09 PM EST

The United States is facing its biggest financial crisis in ages. North Korea is blowing up nukes. Dick Cheney warns us of the "dangers that have not gone away." And there are still wars raging in Afghanistan and Iraq.

But over in the White House press briefing room, it’s a veritable laugh riot.

Whenever there’s laughter in the James S. Brady Briefing Room — by either the briefer or the briefed — the official White House stenographer indicates as much by inserting “(Laughter.)” into the transcript.

And in Robert Gibbs’ first four months as President Barack Obama’s press secretary, there have been more than 600 instances of “(Laughter.)” during his regular press briefings — an average of more than 10 laughs per day.

It’s a gaudy statistic — and one that puts his predecessors to shame.

Dana Perino, George W. Bush’s last press secretary, got all of 57 laughs in her first four months. Scott McClellan, another Bush press secretary, got just 66 laughs in his first four months.

Gibbs even bests the late Tony Snow, whose jocular performances — dubbed “The Tony Snow Show” by some — drew a relatively paltry 217 laughs during his first four months on the job.

Tim Graham, who watches for liberal press bias at the Media Research Center, says all the high times may be a sign of reporters’ political affinity with the Obama administration.

"It's possible that reporters just think Gibbs is much funnier than the Bush people," Graham said. "But I think this is another subliminal sign that reporters are much more comfortable with a spokesman that represents the hope and change they voted for."

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http://www.politico.com/singletitlevideo.html?bcpid=1155201977&bctid=24432759001

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. My take - Gibbs can't help laughing at some of the idiocy he is hearing from the press!

[FrenchieCat]

2. They forgot to mention that Gibbs is laughing At the WH press whores,

not with them!

Some of their questions are so ridiculous, I'd laugh too! Take the Birth Certificate question,
please.

[EquallyExhausted]

3. gibbs does most of the laughing

at the stupidity of the questions he gets. another episode of impeccable journalism for politico! how dare people do anything but grimace during these times?!? this idiocy is "punch drunk" 2.0.

[blogslut]

4. I'm laughing

...at the way the Politico pretends to be impartial.

[SamCooke]

5. Gibby is killing them

[npk]

6. What about when Bush was telling jokes just days after Katrina

The white house press found that just fucking hilarious and amazingly Politico had nothing to say about that.

[Supersedeas]

7. there was nothing funny about Perino -- other than stenographers laughing AT HER

[snowdays]

8. oh yeah!! The so called 'jounalists" yucking it up with the WH.

Many lost their critical edge long time ago.

[Cha]

9. What can I say?...Gibbs has an

inate weird sense of humor.

It's keeping him sane, no doubt.

[Bucky]

10. Knowing that someone is lying to you kinda takes the fun out of one's "dream job"

Maybe Gibbs has a gift for levity, but the deficiency of Republican White House spokesmodels only getting a few laughs has a lot to do with the fact that listening to someone say "President Bush made us safer" or "I said Iraq has 'contacts' with al-Qaeda, but I wasn't trying to imply they had 'connections' with them" sort of puts everyone in a tense mood.