Gibbs shifting to Obama campaign adviser

Press secretary Robert Gibbs said Wednesday he will be leaving the White House in early February. He will help guide President Obama's reelection campaign as an outside adviser.

The New York Times reports:

[Gibbs] said he has no intention of establishing a political consulting or lobbying business, but he intends to work from the same downtown Washington office where David Plouffe has spent the last two years. Mr. Plouffe, who was Mr. Obama’s campaign manager, will move to the White House and work as a senior adviser to the president.

The departure of senior adviser David Axelrod, meanwhile, is looming. Axelrod is reportedly set to return to Chicago to help with the president's bid for a second term. Other staff departures are anticipated in the period before Obama's State of the Union address on Jan. 25.