Gates to stay as defense chief
Fortunately, they meant Robert Gates, the current Secretary of Defense, not Bill. Rico says he's relieved; Bill doesn't know a damn thing about defense. But he's still gagging over the decision to appoint Hillary as SoS...
President-elect Barack Obama has decided to keep Defense Secretary Robert Gates in his post, a show of bipartisan continuity in wartime that will be the first instance that a Pentagon chief has been carried over from a president of a different party, Democrats close to the transition said Tuesday.
Obama's advisers were nearing a formal agreement for Gates to stay on for perhaps a year, the Democrats said, and they expected to announce the decision as early as next week, along with other choices for the national security team. The two sides have been working out details on how Gates would wield authority in a new administration.
The move will give the new president a defense secretary with support on both sides of the aisle in Congress, as well as experience with foreign leaders around the world and respect among the senior military officer corps. But two years after President Bush picked him to lead the armed forces, Gates will now have to pivot from serving the commander in chief who started the Iraq war to serving one who has vowed to end it.
In deciding to ask Gates to stay, Obama put aside concerns that he would send a jarring signal after a campaign in which he made opposition to the war his signature issue in the early days.
Advisers argued that Gates was a pragmatic, apolitical choice who would carry out his president's instructions.
In addition to formally announcing his nomination of Clinton as secretary of state, Obama was expected to appoint General James Jones, a retired Marine commandant and NATO supreme commander, as his national security adviser.
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