Barack Obama Chooses Robert Gibbs for his Press Secretary

Robert Gibbs (pictured at right) will be Barack Obama's Press Secretary.
(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America)

President Elect Barack Obama is wasting no time in putting together his cabinet. Two days after being elected, he's chosen Rahm Emanuel for his chief of staff and now Robert Gibbs for his press secretary.

Gibbs is most well known for going toe-to-toe with Fox News' Sean Hannity. The two had a heated argument over the nature of the relationship between Obama and former Weather Underground leader William Ayers.

The whole thing sort of devolved into a shouting match, but the clip made waves all over the news cycle. It became a key moment in separating Barack Obama from William Ayers in the public psyche. As an added bonus, it made Hannity look more than a little foolish for his use of anti-semitical conspiracy theorist Andy Martin as a primary source for an Obama smear piece he had run a few days earlier. Roll the clip...

But that's not the whole story. Gibbs is a somewhat controversial figure in the Democratic party.

After Gibbs hooked up with, and soon left, John Kerry's presidential campaign in 2003, he was a key member of the 527 political group "Americans for Jobs, Health Care and Progressive Values." Well who the hell are they? If you were a Dean backer in 2004 (*sigh* we sad few still willling to admit it) you might remember a particularly nasty attack ad that ran early in the primaries.

The ad zooms in slowly on a picture of Osama bin-Laden on Time magazine while questioning whether Howard Dean is qualified to handle national security. Well we have Gibbs and the "Americans for Jobs..." organization to thank for that little gem of Democratic party in-fighting. Roll the clip...

Gibbs' association with the attack ad and the political group drew heated criticism form the liberal blogging community (most notably former Dean operative Jerome Armstrong) when he was appointed Communications Chief to Obama's presidential campaign in 2007.

His associations aside, Gibbs is a promising press secretary. He's a tough, natural-born Southern talker and glad-hander who regularly chats up the press while combating attacks unleashed by Obama's opponents.

While working for Obama he enacted a policy of rapidly combating any and all rumors about his man, quipping to Fox News: "The best way to fight rumor is with fact. If you don't fight rumor, it becomes truth."

What do you think? Is Gibbs the man for the job? Vote here.