Word: roberts
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Hours after the lowest point of his boss's first two weeks in office, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs ended the first chapter of the Obama presidency and launched the second. At the end of his morning staff meeting - where his team had gathered to discuss the handling of issues from the first fortnight, including Tom Daschle's unexpected failure to join the Cabinet because of tax-compliance problems - Gibbs reminded members of his team what they had come to Washington...
...There was no way of guessing then how integral a role Gibbs would play in that effort. But it turned out to be a vital one. "There isn't a single decision that the President has formed in the course of his campaign or the presidency that Robert didn't weigh in on," says Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama's most senior advisers...
...recalls, the message was received as if it had come from Obama himself, given the frequency with which the two men talk. Gibbs and Obama have developed what Pete Rouse, another top aide, calls a "back-and-forth, locker-room camaraderie" that includes occasional heated arguments with raised voices. "Robert will never pull his punches with the President," says Rouse. They tease each other frequently: asked by Jarrett to describe Gibbs' sense of humor for Time, Obama deadpanned, "Robert is very funny, but I can't remember any of his jokes...
There's nothing new about Washington asking its European allies to start pulling their military weight. But when American Defense Secretary Robert Gates appealed for additional European troop support for the war in Afghanistan on Thursday, the sense of futility was all too obvious. Even as Gates asked Europe for help, he let on that he doesn't actually expect much. President Barack Obama's White House "is a new administration and there clearly will be expectations that the allies must do more," Gates said Thursday during a trip to Poland, his first abroad since being retained as Defense Secretary...
...American Forces (French and Spanish NATO-allied troops make up the rest) stationed at the Manas airbase on the outskirts of the Kyrgyzstan capital of Bishkek. The U.S. now has six months to exit the base following President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's signing the bill on Friday. But Defense Secretary Robert Gates quickly said that the U.S. ouster isn't a "closed issue." He has suggested the U.S. might be willing to pay more than the current $17 million annual rent to use the base. Bakiyev telegraphed the move earlier this month during a trip to Moscow, complaining that...