Poll Shocker: Gibbs Viewed More Favorably Than Obama (Update – Gibbs Responds!)

hearsay

by Tommy Christopher | 5:29 pm, December 16th, 2009

» 5 comments

Update: Below the fold, Robert Gibbs’ reacts to this honor exclusively for Mediaite.

According to a new Clarus Research poll of people who follow the news either “closely” or “very closely,” Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is the most popular White House staffer (50% approval vs. 33% disapproval). President Obama edged Gibbs’ approval number with 51%, but had a 45% disapproval rating. That gives Gibbs a 17-6 advantage in favorability. (h/t Ben Smith via Jonathan Martin)

That could make for some awkward moments around the watercooler in most offices, but there’s considerable daylight between the jobs these two do, and the President always has that Nobel Prize to rub in Gibbs’ face.

The most popular figures in the Obama administration as a whole were a little less surprising.

Via Ben Smith’s blog:

Hillary Clinton, to this group (who gave Obama a 51% approval rating), is a particular star: She has a 75% approval rating, to 21% dissaproval; Gates, at 69% to 20% was next.

Robert Gibbs led among White House staffers, with 50% to 33% approval numbers.

Gates and Clinton benefit greatly by being removed from the polarizing health care debate.

While Robert Gibbs is often vilified by those on the right, this poll seems to indicate that news junkies are as charmed as the White House press corps is by Gibbs’ folksy sense of humor.

Update: I emailed Robert Gibbs to get his reaction to this poll. His response was characteristically droll.

“I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected.”

jmartpolitico, Jonathan Martin, Robert Gibbs, Robert Gibbs Popular, Tommy Christopher, twitter, White House Popularity Poll

ChrisNH

In related news, Bozo The Clown is viewed more favorably than Charles Manson. For Gibbs, this is the very epitome of being damned with faint praise.
m

Pretty much the only targeted smear campaign on Gibbs has been from Sean Hannity, who hates his guts because Gibbs publicly humiliated him on his own show.
disgusted

So..??.. Look at his “friends’/companions! AND what’s WRONG with Charles Manson..??.. JUST Wait!
ImNotBlue

m says:
December 16, 2009 at 6:57 pm

Yes, he was humiliated. Gibbs said that Sean was an anti-Semite because as a television host, he once interviewed a guy who was an admitted anti-Semite. That comparison was EXACTLY the same as a presidential candidate spending 20 years in the church of an racist anti-American… or spending time working with and campaigning with a terrorist. Exactly the same.

/sarcasm
MikeLI631

Being a press secretary is a hard job, on one’s sense of Ethics.

I remember, a long time ago, being interviewd for a press aide job, for a powerful US Senator..the first question he gave me, was…”Do you have any problem, lying…not telling the Truth ?”