Report: Obama may keep Gates as secretary of defense

Bad news to those who are pushing for Joe Biden as our possible secretary of Defense.

A new report by the Sunday Times of UK quotes Obama's key foreign policy adviser, Richard Danzig as saying:

"My personal position is Gates is a very good secretary of defence and would be an even better one in an Obama administration."

Does Obama listen to Danzig? Besides the fact that he's Obama's adviser, Obama mentioned Danzig when asked by the New York Times a few months ago which experts he would listen to on Iraq:

Q. When you formulate your position for where we go from here in Iraq, which experts to you consult with? What informs your judgment and assessment of the next steps?

Senator Barack Obama: Well, we have a pretty wide circle of advisers. We talk to everybody from the usual suspects in Washington - various foreign policy experts - to mid-rank military officers, many of whom have served in Iraq, to higher ranking officers like General Scott Gration who flew repeated combat missions and has helped to advise us on a range of these issues and people like Richard Danzig, who is one of our key foreign policy advisers. So it's a pretty wide circle.

Another Obama adviser agrees with Danzig:

Ivo Daalder of the Brookings Institution in Washington, a foreign policy adviser to Obama, said: "Robert Gates is one of the best defence secretaries we have had in a long time and it makes a lot of sense to keep him."

I will not pretend Gates is a bad pick. Change is good only if what's being changed was ineffective. On the other hand, McCain can use this as a talking point to boost this administration, arguing that Bush's pick as defense secretary worked out so well that the agent of change may keep him.

What do you guys think?

Tags: Barack Obama (all tags)

Comments

18 Comments

If Bush touched it, it needs to be burnt . . .
No.  
No.
No.
by prodigal 2008-06-29 06:15AM | 0 recs
Re: Report: Obama may keep

Keep him on, but for no longer than a year or so.  Every single friend or relative I have in the service who intends to vote at all intends to vote for Obama.

Each of them also wants Gates to say on.  He's crackerjack, frankly.  I take my friends and family at their word.  If they say Gates is this effective and flexible, then I believe them.

by Reaper0Bot0 2008-06-29 06:16AM | 0 recs
Re: Report: Obama may keep

I agree with this, and he is in a position where, even if you dont keep him on, have him work with the next person for at least a year.  

by Brandon 2008-06-29 06:39AM | 0 recs
Re: Report: Obama may keep Gates as secretary of d

I've heard really good things about Gates.  I wouldn't be upset.

by Steve M 2008-06-29 06:36AM | 0 recs
Re: Report: Obama may keep Gates as secretary of d

Gates was the President of the university that I graduated from (Texas A&M) for the entire 4 years that I was there.  I don't agree with his political affiliations, but he was/is a class act and always conducted himself with integrity.  I wouldn't be upset at all if Obama kept him on.

by mnl1012 2008-06-29 06:56AM | 0 recs
Heads will explode all over the blogosphere !!!
I hope it isn't true (for reasons of policy and substance), but it would be funny to read the post facto justifications . . .
Would critics of retaining Gates be Olbermann's "worst person of the day" ?
by kosnomore 2008-06-29 07:17AM | 0 recs
Re: Heads will explode all over the blogosphere !!

just look above for the mealy-mouthed justifications. And to think Hillary was castigated and derided and reviled for saying basically the same things about McCain not that long ago...that "adviser" needs to re-think his words.

by zerosumgame 2008-06-29 07:41AM | 0 recs
Re: Heads will explode all over the blogosphere !!

Mealy-mouthed my ass.  I have been open to the idea of keeping Gates on since a few months after he got the damned job.

by Reaper0Bot0 2008-06-29 08:00AM | 0 recs
Re: Heads will explode all over the blogosphere !!

are we supposed to be shocked you support a bush-bot? not me, after all I have seen your attempts to keep the dems divided for a while now.

by zerosumgame 2008-06-29 08:16AM | 0 recs
Re: Heads will \

Say what?

Are you out of your goddamned mind?

by Reaper0Bot0 2008-06-29 08:27AM | 0 recs
Re: Report: Obama may keep Gates as

I mean, if he's doing a good job, I see no reason to replace him.  I'm not a fan of changing political appointees just for the hell of it.  In theory it is not supposed to be a political position.  And, does Biden even have any military experience of his own (I realize that his son is in the military)?  

by rfahey22 2008-06-29 07:32AM | 0 recs
Re: Report: Obama may keep Gates as

I haven't really seen Biden mentioned as a possible SecDef.  Now, as SecState he'd be really solid.

by Reaper0Bot0 2008-06-29 07:33AM | 0 recs
Re: Report: Obama may keep Gates as

I have heard Biden floated as Secretary of State, i think that could be a good thing.

by Brandon 2008-06-29 07:36AM | 0 recs
Re: Report: Obama may keep Gates as

Yeah, I agree.  I'm curious where the diarist got that idea.

by rfahey22 2008-06-29 07:42AM | 0 recs
Re: Report: Obama may keep Gates as secretary of d

Why would he say this. it undermines the meme that the Bush administration is shit by giving legitimacy to it.

by Lakrosse 2008-06-29 08:29AM | 0 recs
Re: Report: Obama may keep

Not necessarily.  Gates is the outsider that Bush was practically forced to pick in order to clean up the mess that Rummy made.

by Reaper0Bot0 2008-06-29 08:34AM | 0 recs
by Alice Marshall 2008-06-29 09:50AM | 0 recs
Re: culture of corruption

No, he does not.  The man is competent, and was reluctant as hell to return to Washington.  He has run the DoD in a way that has minimized our losses and refocused our deployments on strategy and tactics that actually work.  The fact that those deployments are inherently flawed (Iraq far, far more than Afghanistan) is not his fault.

He's doing about the best job anyone could have imagined, given the impossible task he accepted.  

He's also reforming the Air Force, something that I doubt many here have followed, but it is incredibly important.  The earthbound branches are not getting the air support they need in the way that they need it, and all the Air Force wants to buy are F-22 Raptors and JS-35 Joint Strike Fighters, not A-10's or anything like them.  The Air Force is breaking itself, and Gates is trying to fix it.

Educate yourself on the job he has done, not merely an article from nearly two years ago.  The man is a solid SecDef, and I did not expect that.

by Reaper0Bot0 2008-06-29 09:54AM | 0 recs

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