Robert Gibbs "will be the face of the Obama White House."

November 22, 2008, 4:22 pm

Obama Communicates Communication Staff

By Sarah Wheaton

If you don’t already know him, get used to seeing this man. His will be the face of the Obama White House.

Robert Gibbs was the communications director, and later a senior strategist, for the Obama campaign, and now President-elect Barack Obama has tapped him to be his administration’s press secretary.

Mr. Gibbs, along with David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s chief strategist, and David Plouffe, his campaign manager, formed the inner circle of the Obama campaign. The Times’s Jim Rutenberg recently noted that “In taking over the White House lectern, Mr. Gibbs will be a press secretary with the closest relationship to an incoming United States president in memory.”

Another name familiar to those on the Obama press list also has a permanent position, according to a transition team press release (not from him, though he is currently the communications director for the transition): Daniel H. Pfeiffer. He has been named the deputy director of communications in the new White House. In addition to having worked for the campaign, Mr. Pfeiffer is among the Senator Tom Daschle alumni populating the ranks of the Obama organization, having been his deputy campaign manager during the former majority leader’s unsuccessful reelection bid.

more