Obama's Press Secretary Gibbs Joins Twitter

WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Robert Gibbs has another podium -- Twitter.

President Barack Obama's spokesman joined the microblogging service on Saturday and has already attracted nearly 18,000 followers to his account at @presssec.

"Learning about 'the twitter' -- easing into this with first tweet -- any tips?" read his first message.

Gibbs followed it up the next day with: "wow -- in a less than 30 hours almost 17K of you are following -- amazing -- watch out Kim Kardashian! Thanks to all for the smart tips!"

Gibbs has a long way to go, however, before he catches up to reality TV star Kardashian, whose Twitter account, @kimkardashian, has nearly three million followers.

He also has a long way to go to catch his boss, whose @barackobama account has more than 3.2 million followers although the president has acknowledged he doesn't send his own "tweets."

Gibbs' Twitter page also contains a warning that since his is an official White House account comments and messages the press secretary receives "may be archived" in line with the Presidential Records Act.