NEW YORK—President-elect Barack Obama plans to keep President Bush’s Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, multiple sources reported on Tuesday.
A source told ABC news that keeping Gates on at the top Pentagon job was “all but a done deal,” and Obama’s transition team is expected to make a formal announcement after Thanksgiving.
Obama is also anticipated to name a slew of other members to his security and international affairs team after the holiday, including Sen. Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, Retired Marine General Jim Jones as National Security Advisor, Dr. Susan Rice as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., and Retired Admiral Dennis Blaire as Director of National Intelligence.
Sources noted that Obama wanted Gates to stay on due in part to desiring continuity in leadership when America is fighting two wars overseas.
Gates also attracts bipartisan backing, having been a registered independent and garnering Republican and Democratic support alike. He was tapped to be Bush’s defense secretary in late 2006 after Donald Rumsfeld resigned, and was confirmed in the Senate by a vote of 95 to 2.
Many political analysts point to Obama’s pick as evidence that Obama is willing to reach across partisan lines to fill his Cabinet. Obama has said repeatedly, both before and after the election, that he would appoint Republicans to his Cabinet. Although Gates is not a self-proclaimed Republican, he has served in key intelligence posts under Republican presidents.
Gates served as CIA director for a little more than one year under President George H.W. Bush, and then served as President of Texas A&M University before being President George W. Bush’s defense secretary. Gates is also a former Eagle Scout and spent two years in the Air Force during the 1960s.
At the start of his tenure at the Pentagon, Gates took over a faltering Iraq war. Having served in the Iraq Study Group, which strongly rebuked failed Iraq policies of President Bush, he took control at the Pentagon, preaching both responsibility and decisiveness. Even when he did not personally agree with the surge, he did his best to make certain of its effectiveness, and when news of neglect at the Walter Reed Medical Center surfaced, he personally removed two top-level army officials for the scandal.
While many important national security positions are being filled, the post of CIA director remains in limbo. John Brennan, Obama’s main advisor for intelligence and former chief of staff to ex-CIA director George Tenet, withdrew his name for consideration for CIA director despite being mentioned as a frontrunner for the job. In a letter to Obama, Brennan blasted critics who linked him to Bush’s controversial interrogation techniques. He shot back, saying “the fact that I was not involved in the decision-making process for any of these controversial policies and actions has been ignored.”
