When President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize last week, it was press secretary Robert Gibbs who woke him at 6 a.m. with the news.
Gibbs also has been on wake-up duty for bad news: He roused Obama in April during an overseas trip to tell him North Korea had launched a rocket into the Pacific, grim tidings that traditionally would have been delivered by the national security advisor.
“I don’t ever recall any instance in my time when the press secretary would have done that,” said Tony Fratto, who served as deputy press secretary for former President George W. Bush.
None of Bush’s press secretaries had quite the relationship with their boss as Gibbs has with Obama — a closeness that puts the press secretary squarely inside the insular men’s club of Obama’s inner circle.
“There are two types of press secretaries,” said Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar at the Brookings Institution. “One is considered so close to the president, you can bank on what he tells you.”
The other type is the skilled media handler, who usually has a Washington resume but limited inside-the-room access to the president.
Gibbs is of the former variety — he joined Obama’s 2004 Senate campaign, after stints on Sen. John Kerry’s presidential campaign and with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Since then, he’s been called an Obama channeler and whisperer.
“Gibbs also knows Washington,” said Martha Joynt Kumar, a political scientist at Towson University and an expert on White House communications. “That combination of having been in Washington and also serving Obama before he ran for president — that was different from those who served in the Bush administration.”
His tight relationship with Obama means Gibbs in the traditionally lower-status press secretary job has largely eclipsed the role of White House communications director, a position currently occupied by the more low-profile Anita Dunn.
In fact, all the members of the president’s tight circle of advisors are men: Gibbs, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Senior Advisor David Axelrod.
Although women, such as Deputy Chief of Staff Mona Sutphen and Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett occupy prominent roles in the administration, it’s Gibbs and the guys who are generally perceived as those Obama relies on most.
“Robert is the guy I want in the foxhole with me during incoming fire,” Obama told the Wall Street Journal in 2008. “If I’m wrong, he challenges me. He’s not intimidated by me.”
The pervasive whiff of the West Wing men’s club was something Gibbs had to answer to last week, when reporters noted that no women had been invited to play in a basketball game the president hosted for members of his Cabinet and Congress.
“I would say that the point’s well taken,” Gibbs said. “The president obviously is someone who, as the father of two young daughters, has an avid interest in their competing against anybody on the playing field. The president’s certainly played basketball and other sports with women in the past, and I anticipate he’ll do so in the future.”
As for his role as designated presidential wake-up call, Gibbs said, “I don’t think anybody wants the job.”
