Carney Takes his First Turn at White House Podium

February 16, 2011 | 2:34 PM |

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Carney, who spent 20 years at Time magazine before taking a job as Vice President Joe Biden's communications director two years ago, didn't offer any platitudes when he answered a question about how he saw his job.

 "I work to promote the president and the message he's trying to convey to the American people, but I also work with the press to try to help you do your job," said Carney, who was grilled on Iran, the budget and the future of Guantanamo Bay during his first briefing. "The office the press secretary has is somewhat symbolically placed halfway between the briefing room and the Oval Office, and I think that says something about what the nature of the job is."

It was a more polite version of what Carney co-wrote for Time about President George W. Bush's first press secretary Ari Fleisher's 28 months on the job. Back than, the journalist Carney didn't mince words about what he thought about the job of the president's flack. "It is a press secretary's job to "spin" -- to take a set of facts, however unpleasant, and give them enough English to make the president look good," Carney and John Dickerson (now of Slate) wrote in the 2003 piece.

 And Carney did his fair share of spinning today.

 He twice noted that he's not an economist, when sidestepping a question about Obama's proposed budget. The Northern Virginia native harrumphed with the indignation of an outsider that "only in Washington would $400 billion be seen as not a lot of money" when defending one of Obama's proposed spending cuts. And he knocked down a couple of questions by saying he didn't want to address a hypothetical situation. But ABC Radio's Ann Compton was able to trick him into addressing one: Who did he think would play him on Saturday Night Live?

 "Hopefully, nobody!"

Surprisingly, Carney spent little time watching Gibbs brief since he was named to the post three weeks ago.

Instead, a White House source tells me Carney purposely kept himself in the dark. After Gibbs concluded his briefing, members of the White House press shop and other administration officials would gather in the South Auditorium in the Executive Office Building or another free room and hold a mock briefing for Carney based on the questions that Gibbs was just asked.

 All in all, today's briefing wasn't bad first run. As Carney stepped away from the podium, he seemed relieved to have one under his belt. It went "better than I could have ever expected," Carney said.