Ha ha ha. right up front he decides not to change the SEC Defense. Man, that’s gotta’ be disappointing.
Anti-war voice as Defense Sec’y. That’s like a vegan being President of McDonald’s.
Barry, m’boy...payback is hell.
I can’t see him keeping Gates or any other high level Bush holdover, without losing face before his base. Some change...
Medea Benjamin is just another naive leftist fool who just can't believe that Dear Leader was lying all along...
What a country!
Maybe codepinker Sheehan will camp out by his Chicago home.
Not! She wouldn’t last a day in that neighborhood: too many experienced terrorists just around the block.
Nominating Rahm Emmanuel -- the same.
The President-elect doesn't need Code Pink. If every member of every chapter of Code Pink had voted for John McCain instead of him, he would still have won. He owes them nothing and getting them upset makes him look less radical in his sympathies.
Gates is an interesting guy. I would have guessed that he would have been less effective than Donald Rumsfeld. But, in fact, he has done a good job.
Rumsfeld’s strength was that he was willing to take flak and speak his mind, and he tried very hard to broom the losers out of the Pentagon. It was his leadership that bypassed the top brass and put Tommy Franks in charge of the war. But, of course, either he or Bush was wrong about the way to handle the Iraqi War after the invasion was completed. Not enough troops, poor rules of engagement.
Gates had the good sense to find the right guy to lead the revised war strategy: General Petraeus. And he has a good ability to work with all the players without offending them. His weakness is that he gave up on cleaning the clintonoids out the Pentagon.
Interesting to see what Obama decides. He needs a capable guy in that post, because if he doesn’t start anything the other side probably will. And Gates appears to be someone who can get along, take orders, and play the hand he is dealt.