Robert Gibbs Resigns

Hard to get away with being so smug, snarky and condescending when the GOP's got some say in matters, so Gibbs takes the coward's way out:

Robert Gibbs is resigning from his role as President Obama's official spokesman in order to speak more effectively for Obama.


"The best service I can provide this president is, for the next couple of years, outside this building," said Gibbs, who announced Wednesday that he would leave his press secretary job in early February. He will then hit the lucrative speaking circuit and become a paid consultant to the Obama reelection campaign.


The resignation of Gibbs is further evidence that the 2012 presidential campaign has already begun and that Obama, who lacks the numerous surrogates of past presidents, needs to deploy Gibbs to the front lines of the public debate. Gibbs will be unchained from the government salary and decorum expected from the press room podium, especially in a White House that has an officially stated disdain for partisan politics. Obama's longtime attack dog can finally bare his teeth.


Gibbs's move also exposes the shortcomings of the room he is leaving, and the decreased political significance of a podium-bound official voice in a raucous virtual age.


On Wednesday afternoon, around the time Republicans exuberantly took over the House, Gibbs arrived at his daily briefing in a charcoal pinstriped suit and blue pastel tie dotted with commas - an appropriate pattern for the famously long-winded spokesman.