White House press secretary tweets his public

The first thing you need to know about White House press secretary Robert Gibbs's foray into Twitter-land was that he was a half an hour late to his own party. That lent a patina of authenticity to his social media experiment because Gibbs's daily briefing with reporters is often delayed.

Gibbs tweeted an apology before beginning: "Hey folks...sorry third day of the year and already running late! So...let's get started."

Many of the questions Gibbs chose to answer -- after soliciting them in an 11 a.m. tweet -- were fairly anodyne. The first question was about the "White House's stance" on repealing health care reform, to which Gibbs predictably answered that the president is, uh, opposed to that.

To Ricardo Gutierrez of San Diego, someone who describes himself as "relearning how to dream," Gibbs ranked from high to low the administration's priorities: "creating jobs, reducing debt and increasing exports (thus growing jobs) are all highest priority -- re-elect is 2 yrs away."

A graduate student from Indiana asked Gibbs whether it was "realistic" to expect Republicans and Democrats to work together to "get the fiscal situation under control." Gibbs's talking point response: "We have to work together to get our fiscal house in order -- if we don't we mortgage the future."

@Afiab wanted to know whether Democrats and Republicans would work together to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind education legislation.

Gibbs did something he never does in the briefing room -- he called it a "great q" -- and said, "This is an issue where Dems and GOP should be able to agree -- read what Sec Duncan said today on this http://is.gd/k1Rrr." (A plug for a Cabinet member -- a nice touch.)

A misspelling crept into Gibbs's answer to an open-ended question submitted by @escapetochengdu about China policy -- "President Hu will visit WH in Januray -- they must do something abt their currency -- trade, N Korea and rights on agenda" -- but no doubt that those 140 characters are already being scrutinized in Beijing and by the AFL-CIO.

One Twitterer schooled Gibbs on a bit of etiquette: "If you put a period before the handle you are replying to, then all of us can see your answer and the question too," wrote someone affiliated with Minnesota Democrats. "Thanks for the tip," Gibbs replied.

Gibbs also tweeted about his new bicycle, telling a questioner that the cold forced him to move his exercise regimen inside.

Asked about the BCS championship game by @awnutts, Gibbs said he'd be "Going to Glendale to watch the game with some friends I grew up in Auburn with -- WAR EAGLE."

Probably more than a thousand people tweeted questions in the two hours between Gibbs's announcement and his session, so it's not quite fair to point to the questions that weren't answered. Still, some of them cut to the bone:

"@PressSec Has the Obama administration missed the point that we need to stop rewarding corps. for outsourcing American jobs?"

"@PressSec #1q How does POTUS plan to prevent cuts to entitlement programs proposed by the GOP, or will he allow such cuts?"

"@PressSec y need new frash dems strategist #1 who will stick up for pres #2 can make new agrument not olds the like dems are for middle clas"

"@pressec Why can't the White House hire some one who can actually explain #hcr? #1q"

Several Twitterers worried about rising gas prices and asked what the White House planned to do.

As Gibbs typed answers into his computer, his boss, President Obama, was finishing his final workout of his Hawaiian vacation. The president returns to Washington Tuesday.