Obama keeps Gates – what will Hillary say?

Robert Gates (pictured), defence secretary under George W Bush, will keep his job when Barack Obama takes control of the White House. According to Washington officials, Gates will not need to be reconfirmed and the President-elect will announce the rest of his national security team early next week. The US News and World Report recently named Gates as one of "America's best leaders", Time magazine lists him in the Time 100 leaders and revolutionaries, and for Andrew Sullivan, the day Gates was picked was "a good day for the Obama administration".

Having Gates at the head of the Pentagon points to a more hawkish foreign policy than some expected, says Mike Allen on Politico, and the pick will leave left-wingers disappointed that Obama is being "less revolutionary" than his supporters has hoped. But Allen points out that by admitting one of Bush’s closest colleagues into his team, Obama is beginning to deliver on his promise of a bipartisan cabinet – even if Gates is not an "active Republican".

Allen's Politico colleague Ben Smith thinks the decision makes sense: "It prevents Obama from taking the blame, immediately, for whatever happens in Iraq." But he admits that keeping Bush's defence secretary after spending so much time criticising the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is "remarkable".

The appointment "has more minuses than pluses," Lawrence Corb, the defence expert and former Pentagon official, told Time. "If President Obama wants to make any dramatic changes in the Pentagon, he's going to have to do them in his first year - and if he's got the same Secretary, how can Obama do it?"

On CNN, David Gergen makes the point that if Hillary Clinton is confirmed as Secretary of State, there's a question of her compatibility with Gates. "When you have people with this much stature, there can be ego clashes," he warns.

FIRST POSTED NOVEMBER 26, 2008