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I'm with Chris Bowers, OpenLeft.com, if news reports are correct from corporate media that Obama is going to keep Robert Gates on as SecofDef. Bowers states:
This should be an open and shut case. If there was one message that Obama ran on loudly, clearly, and indisputably, it is that he was going to bring "change" to Washington, D.C. If Gates were kept on as Secretary of Defense, it apparently would also mean that all of his top advisors would also stay on, and that it all happened because long-time D.C. operatives said it should. Keeping the same guy and all of his advisors at the behest of old establishment types is about as far from change as possible. Secretary of Defense is the big enchilada. Arguably, due to the vast percentage of federal spending it receives, it is more important than all other cabinet secretaries combined. The President may be Commander in Chief, but it is the Secretary of Defense who is decides how most federal revenue is spent. We need change in the Department of Defense, and keeping Gates along with his entire team of advisors and assistants doesn't fit the bill.
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There is no confirmed source that Gates has asked to keep any of his current team of political appointees, nor any reasonable basis to accuse the Obama-Biden Transition of even considering this. Let's also make it clear that this is NOT the same crew that stood beside Rummy creating the Iraq debacle.
Wolfy and Fife have long ago "left the building" along with their supporting cast of cronies. With the change of Senate control in 2006 the Bushies simply haven't bothered to fill a number of Pentagon political offices.
It is more accurate to see the remaining deep-red GOP operatives leave their resignation letters on Gates' desk late on the afternoon of 19 Jan 09, or sooner. The true Radical Conservatives will rapidly jump to their next safe-haven rather than be "tainted" within their cliques by even a care-taker term working under any Democratic President.
Unfortuantely, this is yet another post a long-string that seek to present the withdrawal from Iraq as an on/off switch, or something similar to packing a carry-on and leaving after a business trip. For those who know that the past seven years have been a tragedy, following that kind of sophomoric description of a national strategy in the withdrawal would be truly horrifying and costly beyond measure in lives and dollars.
More credible sources have a diametrically different perspective on Mr. Gates. Typically the foreign press is more objective and critical of the Transition. This is from the Nov 27 "Economist" print edition:
UNITED STATES
The transition 2
Masters of war
Nov 27th 2008 | WASHINGTON, DC
From The Economist print edition
Barack Obama's defence team is taking shape
ONE of Barack Obama's best moves so far has been a reported decision to do nothing - that is to keep Robert Gates on as secretary of defence.
Mr Gates has had an impressive record since taking over from Donald Rumsfeld in December 2006. He has presided over a dramatic improvement in the situation in Iraq, and restored morale in a badly demoralised department. At the same time, he has been commendably tough with underperforming subordinates, sacking both the secretary of the air force and his chief of staff over the lax handling of nuclear weapons. Keeping somebody with such a record makes sense at a time when America is embroiled in two wars, with improvements in Iraq still fragile and the situation in Afghanistan deteriorating.
Mr Gates's likely reappointment will allow Mr Obama to deliver on his promise to appoint at least one Republican in his cabinet. But in truth Mr Gates is an admirably non-partisan figure. He once worked in Jimmy Carter's NSC. He enjoys support on both sides of Capitol Hill. He has long shared Mr Obama's enthusiasm for engaging with Iran.
Copyright © 2008 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All rights reserved.