NATIONAL NEWS
October 5, 2009
Meet the Press Secretary
TFK Kid Reporter Sydney Turner sat down with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs
Robert Gibbs knows the news. It is his job as spokesperson for the White House to meet with journalists daily to answer their questions about news that happens in the United States and around the world. Most importantly, he must be able to explain President Barack Obama's view of the news. I spoke with Gibbs about his job in his office in the West Wing of the White House. (Just down the hall is the Oval Office, where President Obama meets with his advisers). Gibbs told me about a typical workday, what his meetings with President Obama are like and what he thinks the President's biggest challenges and successes have been so far.
 |  BRENDA IASEVOLI FOR TIME FOR KIDS TFK Kid Reporter Sydney Turner talks to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. |
What is a typical workday like for you?
Gibbs:I usually try to get here at about six o'clock in the morning. I spend about an hour reading newspapers and getting ready for a series of meetings. There are a couple of staff meetings with the President, usually his economic daily briefing. Then, I spend the rest of my morning preparing for the press briefing where you were, getting ready to answer questions [from reporters]. Usually the afternoon is spent calling [journalists] back about stories that they're writing. More meetings. Hopefully I can get home at a decent hour so I could read to my son. But I would say I'm usually here 12 to 14 hours a day.
TFK:Could you describe a typical meeting with President Obama?
Gibbs:Every work day, we have a senior advisers meeting. There are probably 10 of us, and what we generally do, unless there is something in particular that the President wants to talk about, is we go around the room and if we have a concern or if we need to talk to him about an issue, we have the chance to do it there. The one thing that you have to be ready for when you go into a meeting with the President is you have to be ready to talk about just about anything and you have to be able to address his questions. I learned very early on that he is somebody who likes to know a lot about an issue before he makes up his mind. So you have to give him a pretty good idea about what he has to decide before he's going to make a decision.
TFK:What is the best part of your job?
Gibbs:I would say it's the feeling that you come into work and you're serving in some capacity for your country. On one of my first days, I was driving [to work] and it was dark and cold because it was January and I remember driving in front of the gate out on the South Lawn and looking into the White House. It's a pretty neat place to come to work. I told myself that if I ever thought that this wasn't a pretty neat place to come to work, then I would go in that day and give somebody else the chance to do my job. The White House is a special place and I think you have to take it and respect it as that. I will say this. I think I have a really fun job. If I didn't like it, it would be a really really bad job. But I love it, so it's a lot of fun.
TFK:What is the most difficult part of your job?
Gibbs:The most difficult part of my job is the press briefing. I was out there for about 30 or 40 minutes today. You could get a question on just about any topic. The truth is you have to be prepared to talk about so many different things. We may be talking about Iran one minute and health care the next. We talked about the Olympics today. We were sort of all over a lot of different subjects. So you have to spend a lot of time getting ready and reading information to make sure that when you go out there, you can speak appropriately for the President.
TFK:You're one of President Obama's closest advisors. How would you describe the President?
Gibbs:He is extremely thoughtful. He greatly enjoys what he's doing. I think he is genuinely a kind and caring person who has been in government for all of the right reasons—to try to help people and to try to make their lives better. I remember he once told me, this was five years ago when I started working for him in the Senate, that we could all do something that would give us more time with our families, but very few things that we could do that would help people as much as we're doing.
TFK:What do you think is President Obama's biggest success so far?
Gibbs:I think we've done a lot on education. I think we've done a lot to get the economy turned around. There will be quite some time before all of the dividends get paid. But I think as much as anything he's changed the opinion of how the United States is viewed throughout the world, and I think that's pretty good for America.
TFK:What are his biggest challenges?
Gibbs:Oh, gosh. There are almost too many to list. He knows that every day there are a set of things that he knows he's going to have to deal with. And there's always out there a set of things that could become problems at any given moment without any preparation. I think the economy and Afghanistan are the two biggest challenges that he has in addition to health care.
TFK:What issue is foremost on President Obama's mind these days? How is he tackling the issue?
Gibbs:First and foremost is healthcare. There are millions of Americans who go to sleep every night wondering if they will go bankrupt if they get sick. The President is trying to bring different sides together to get a solution through that will cut costs for people that have healthcare and provide affordable health insurance to those who don't.
TFK:President Obama supports a longer school year. How will he convince kids?
Gibbs:While President Obama realizes that a longer school day or school year might not initially be popular with students, or even with his own daughters, he recognizes that American students are currently at a competitive disadvantage to their peers overseas and that students only get one chance at a good education. In countries where students have longer school days or years it's making a positive difference—a difference he wants our students—no matter where they live or where they go to school—to have. Ultimately, the way to convince kids is to make sure that those added days or hours are engaging. When learning is meaningful and fun, the President has all the confidence in the world that students will respond.
Click here to read TFK Kid Reporter Sydney Turner's review of PRESIDENT OBAMA: A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AMERICA'S LEADER.
