And, actually, a tip of the hat to President-elect Obama for having the wisdom to keep at least part of the command structure in place through the transition:
President-elect Barack Obama will keep Defense Secretary Robert Gates in that job for at least a year, according to an official familiar the two men’s discussions.
Obama is expected to announce the selection of Gates and other members of a national security brain trust next week. Gates has served as President George W. Bush’s defense chief for two years.
Gates, a moderate with long-standing ties to Republican administrations and the Bush family, would fulfill an Obama pledge to include a Republican in his Cabinet.
Retaining Gates provides stability for a stretched military fighting two wars during the turbulent changeover in administrations. Gates once said it was inconceivable that he would stay on past the close of Bush’s term on Jan. 20.
But the 65-year-old former spymaster had recently turned mum in public on the circumstances under which he would stay, even briefly, in an Obama administration.
Keeping Gates might afford Obama a sort of extended transition, in which critical military issues are left in trusted hands while Obama focuses most intensely on the financial crisis.
Indeed – and provide Obama a wellspring of good advice when the inevitable challenge comes (which one friend in the know advises might come from Putin over the Baltic States). Obama will still have to take the advice and act with courage, but with Gates at Defense there won’t be any way to say that Obama isn’t equipped with sagacious counselors who know how things work in the military field.
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