Official: Obama asks Gates to stay at Pentagon


Nov 25, 7:04 PM (ET)


CHICAGO (AP) - 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.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081126/D94M96R80.html

very smart move on Obama's part, in my opinion..
Gates is knowledgeable in what is going on in both wars~

i agree, its really about all he can do, i hope gates stays longer, i dont agree with some of obamas executive orders he says will happen, but, so far, his appointments, have been more to the center and he will have to throw the left a bone, but i think in executive order reverses and not cabinet appointments, if i was macain i think i would be glad i lost, lol, obama has a mess on his hands, it will be interesting how it goes down in history, things he promised will certainly have to be delayed for maybe a long while, but its not his fault, he just has a economic mess as does all the world, in china they layed off ppl in hasbo nerf toy factory ,well they went in the office smashed computers and are outside the factory and not leaving , the ones that kept jobs, joined them after their shift, china is almost in a panic, was the title of the article i read,