New Spokesperson

It seems to me a great idea by President Barack Obama to name Jay Carney as the new White House press secretary in place of Robert Gibbs, who left his post last Friday in order to work exclusively on the president’s reelection.

Jay was born in the state of Virginia in 1965 and graduated from the prestigious Yale University, where he majored in foreign politics. Upon graduation, he was hired by Time magazine, which sent him to Moscow as a correspondent for three years. Later they brought him back to Washington and in 1993 designated him as correspondent to the White House.

Jay Carney was my colleague in the Capitol for many years, beginning in 1993. That same year I was hired by CNN En Español to be its White House correspondent. By that time I had been the acting full-time correspondent to the White House for La Tribuna and HRN for six years (since 1987). Three years later, in 1996, Time Warner and CNN merged, and Jay and I became journalist colleagues for the same news consortium. Curiously, Time magazine’s seat in the press room was right next to where I sat afterward. For many years and on numerous occasions, with Jay seated at my side, we together covered a whole series of presidential-spokesperson press conferences by employees of the Clinton administration, as well as by the president himself.

As well as covering the White House, Carney later appeared as a political analyst on programs for CNN and other TV channels, where he became known as an excellent analyst, always relevant and well informed. Later in 2003 he was named second-in-command of Time magazine’s bureau in Washington, and two years later he became the chief. Since then, he has continued to spearhead many channels and was a repeat guest of George Stephanopolous’ news program on ABC. It was in 2008 that Vice President Joe Biden asked Jay to be his communications chief and advisor — a position he occupied for more than two years up until he was selected as President Obama’s press secretary.

Jay is married to a fellow journalist and good friend, Claire Shipman, who covered the White House for CNN for many years until she was hired by ABC. The pair has two children and resides in Washington.

From now on, it will be Carney’s turn to manage controversial topics — among them, the position the White House takes on the situation in Egypt. Knowing him well, I bet that Carney will do good work as the presidential spokesman. He has all the experience in the world because he covered the White House for many years, in addition to having worked two years in the Capitol alongside Joe Biden. Now to Carney goes the difficult task of speaking on behalf of his president and his government.