I live not far from Auburn, Alabama where Robert Gibbs attended high school. If you remember, Robert was the guy who turned the tables on Shaun Hannity. The clip is still available here on the video forum.
http://www.oanow.com/oan/news/local/article/report_auburn_native_named_white_house_press_secretary/45261/“He was a political junkie when he was 17.”
Dr. Emily Sparrow, who taught history and government at Auburn High School, knew she had a special student in Robert Gibbs.
“He had a 99 average in Advanced Placement History and a 100 average in Government,” she said of the 1989 AHS graduate. “But the coolest thing about Bobby was he was respectful of other people’s opinions. I watch him on TV and I see that characteristic has served him well. That’s unique for a 17-year-old.”
So well, in fact, that Gibbs, communications manager for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, is speculated by multiple outlets to be named White House press secretary.
Gibbs, now 37, was communications manager for Obama’s Senate office and played an integral role in Obama’s presidential run.
“Robert is the guy I want in the foxhole with me during incoming fire,” Obama told The Wall Street Journal in an August interview. “If I’m wrong, he challenges me. He’s not intimidated by me.”
<snip>
http://www.mlive.com/us-politics/index.ssf/2008/11/little_shock_in_gibbs_pick.htmlCHICAGO — For almost every day since Barack Obama began his presidential bid, Robert Gibbs has literally stood at his side, traveling as one of a core group of top aides who kept the Illinois senator company and his candidacy on track.
So it came as little surprise Thursday that the president-elect was preparing to tap Gibbs as his press secretary, a job that installs him as the public face of the administration, its conduit to the media and — as he has been from the start — protector of the Obama brand.
Gibbs, 37, sits in the inner ring of Obama’s inner circle, serving as a personal cheerleader and media enforcer who is one of a handful of aides to speak with almost unquestioned authority on Obama's behalf. An Alabama native with a slight Southern drawl, Gibbs is a smooth talker and a fierce combatant, kibitzing with the press one minute and going to war over a story the next.
<snip>
When Fox News host Sean Hannity confronted Gibbs on the air after the second presidential debate about Obama’s association with 1960s-era radical William Ayers, Gibbs performed a rare feat on the show: He turned the tables on the host.
Gibbs went on the offensive, asking Hannity if he was an “anti-Semite” for having associated himself with Andy Martin, a conservative writer who served as a key source for a Hannity TV special that outlined the Democratic nominee’s suppose radical ties. Martin had made several ant-Semitic remarks.
Gibbs received rave reviews, and a Fox senior vice president ultimately expressed regret that the network booked Martin.
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