Good-bye, Mr. Gibbs

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has announced his departure. He will apparently go to Chicago and work on the 2012 Obama re-election campaign.
Robert Gibbs was an abrasive Press Secretary, talking down to reporters, refusing to answer questions, disappearing when reporters needed answers...
And, Gibbs was one of the few White House Press Secretaries in history who was both adviser to the President and his press spokesman. So, one can imagine that his abrasiveness and parry-and-faint tactics were authorized as part of the White House plan for interacting with the White House press corps. The press corps didn't like it and said so often and loudly. They put Gibbs in an unfavorable light, and the light spilled over onto his boss, Barak Obama, making the first two years of the Obama administration one of strained relations with the press. The sole exception seemed to be the New York Times, to which Mr. Gibbs paid almost extravagant attention.
Who will replace him? We don't know yet, but it will surely be someone with two important characteristics different from Gibbs - he or she will not be a presidential adviser and will be friendlier with the press.
If the new White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley has anything to say about it, and you can bet he will have a lot to say, the new person will have press experience, either as a journalist or someone political who has often worked with the press.
If Mr. Obama is smart, he will use the opportunity to mend his relationship with the press, who see him as hostile, and set a better course into 2012. The White House press corps and the east coast media may be liberal, short-sighted about the value of conservative views, out of touch with the opinions of mainstream America, and generally difficult for the bulk of the country to stomach - but they count when presidential election time rolls around.
So, if you're a fan of Barak Obama, you will be watching to see that he doesn't muff this opportunity.