We have to continue to grow our economy — we need to grow it from the middle class out. Millionaires and billionaires — they don’t need a tax cut. They’re not struggling in this economy. They’ve done well even as the middle class has shrunk.Obama campaign senior adviser Robert Gibbs • Speaking about the president’s upcoming speech, where he’s expected to push for an extension of the Bush-era tax cuts on those making less than $250,000 — but no extension of the tax cuts on levels above that. (The long-term goal is to make them permanent, as he’s pushed in the past, but this is for one year.) This is likely to make Republicans ticked, because they want the cuts extended for everyone. But if they can’t figure out how to handle this by January 1, the cuts will be cancelled for everyone. What are the odds that this will be dragged out until December 29th?
Facebook’s growing war chest of former presidential aides: They didn’t get Robert Gibbs, but they did get Joe Lockhart (Clinton’s press secretary). And a bunch of Bush aides. Looks like someone’s prepping for a big legislative fight in DC. source
ROBERT GIBBS isn’t going to Facebook. A friend says: “It blew up.” The deal - a potential goldmine when Facebook goes public — was originally described to us by Obamans as a chance for Gibbs to be “Mark Zuckerberg’s guy.” But when the Facebook side leaked precise details to NYT’s Andrew Ross Sorkin about the layers that would separate Gibbs from the top, it was pretty clear that Gibbs - who used to report to the president of the United States - wasn’t going. Gibbs’ defenders point out that Facebook has been trying to fill this job for a long time.
Today in things that didn’t happen but would’ve been amazing if they did.
Facebook may hire Robert Gibbs: You know you’re big when you can hire the guy who took the verbal bullets for Obama for two years. Daymn. Not a bad rebound gig, Robbie.
Look, now that Robert Gibbs is leaving you must be taking resumes or something. And before we go about submitting an application to the Obama/Biden beast (and spending hours upon hours updating our resume), we thought it might help to explain what you’d be getting if the ShortFormBlog staff took over the work of Mr. Professional himself, Robert “Obama’s bulldog” Gibbs. We can’t expect to be everything for you that he was, but we do have a lot of unique qualifications, including:
» So, what do you say, brah? We’re available to work immediately, and your organization could use someone like us. We’d make things interesting, because we know how drab the White House gets when there’s no change. We can be that change you promised, Barack.
The best service I can provide this president is, for the next couple of years, outside this building.Obama Press Secretary Robert Gibbs • Explaining his reasoning for leaving the warm confines of the White House. Essentially, he won’t be working for Obama inside of the press room, but on the public circuit, where he can show off his feisty nature a bit more freely. It says a lot about Obama’s presidency that two of his top three first-term guys in the White House will still play major roles in his second term – even if it’s not inside the stoic walls of the White House itself. His lead confidantes are mostly loyal. source (via • follow)
You know, we like Robert Gibbs. Endlessly entertaining, more willing to make waves than any other recent press secretary, and a great fit for Obama. He’s feisty where Obama is measured. He isn’t a mouthpiece. He’s a contributor and played a huge role in Obama’s first two years. And that’s why, even though he’s leaving as press secretary in February, he’s still likely to play a role in Obama’s future campaigns. We salute you, Robert Gibbs. You make Scott McClellan look like the straight-up mouthpiece he was. source
I think we’ve had a very capable and good cabinet that has helped move the president’s agenda forward.Obama’s Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs • Emphasizing that there shouldn’t be major changes to the cabinet on the horizon, despite the departure of at least one major figure, top economic adviser Larry Summers (he’s stepping down). However, not all reports agree with that assessment. Among other things Gibbs said on “State of the Union”: Obama is likely to run in 2012, though he hasn’t made it official yet, and he offered hope that the GOP would work more with Democrats in the upcoming session, referring to the “cranky bipartisanship” that the successful lame-duck session wrought. source (via • follow)
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