Robert Gibbs is a busy guy

President Obama has decided to back off from a trade war for now. Turns out he isn’t quite ready to begin a Trans-Pacific trade war with the Chinese after all.

U. .S. Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner was not making a formal finding last week when he told senators China was manipulating its currency, a White House official said on Monday.

“Mr.Geithner was restating what the president had said during the campaign, not making any determinations,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters. source

See? It was just something Obama said, not what he really meant. Or something like that. Kind of like the “No Lobbyists” rule. Yesterday it was William Lynn, and today it was William Corr.

“Even the toughest rules require reasonable exceptions,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told The Associated Press. “Our waiver provisions are designed to allow uniquely qualified individuals like Bill Corr and Bill Lynn to serve the public interest in these critical times.” source

Well, naturally.

Critical times indeed. So critical, that the the Pelosi House has included a wad of money to fund contraception and family planning in the critical economic stimulus package. Because, as we know, elections have consequences, as Obama reminded us yesterday in his “I Won” comment (later explained away by Robert Gibbs as not to be a “cowboy moment”).

Thanks for clearing that up for us Robert.

Update: It looks like Pelosi’s contraceptive stimulus won’t make the final cut after all. Obama appears to be backing off, but Robert Gibbs has been so busy, he sent out the B-team.

“The principles of what he thought should be in the package–that wasn’t part of that,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton told CNSNews.com. “They’re working on what the final bill should look like.” source