President Bush had better hope today was not an omen for his new press secretary. After spending a couple of days zinging the media over its coverage, Tony Snow closed out his first week on the job with an off-camera press "gaggle" this morning that was, by Snow's own admission, "just a mess."

First the gaggle was scheduled for 9am, then rescheduled for 9:30am, and then began around 9:15am, much to the dismay of those who showed up thinking they were early only to find themselves stuck in the hallway outside Snow's jam-packed office unable to see or hear what the new White House press secretary was saying.

Despite the embarrassing logistical foul-ups of this first effort and the grumpiness it caused among some in the White House press corps, expect Snow to do a very good job of managing the press and the message as he gets fully up to speed. Snow's biggest asset, aside from his considerable smarts, is that he's just a darn nice guy. (By the way, this isn't meant to suggest Scott McClellan wasn't necessarily smart or likeable, just that neither of those qualities came through with McClellan the way they're going to with Snow.)

Dana Milbank's detailed account of the gaggle this morning gives a sense of what I'm talking about. Milbank described Snow as "disarming" and said he "offered a refreshing humility, admitting when he didn't know something." Later on Milbank described the scene this way: "Snow was aggressively friendly with the reporters, who didn't seem terribly grateful."

That's probably a fitting description of the way things will be when Snow steps in front of the cameras for the first time in the White House briefing room next week. He's going to kill with kindness, and have to wait and see how the press - and the public - react.