Decision Virginia

Ryan Nobles - bio | email

President- elect Barack Obama is in the process of introducing his national security team. The headline of course, is the nomination of Sen. Hillary Clinton to lead the State Department. However, an equally shocking nomination is the decision of Mr. Obama to ask Robert Gates to stay on at the Pentagon. If there was one issue that Mr. Obama chose to separate himself from the Bush Administration on it was their foreign policy. Mr. Gates has had some very different views on the situation in Iraq than the President-elect. It is clear, though, that Gates’ administration of the Department of Defense has played some sort of a role in the progress made in Iraq. Mr. Obama feels that Gates’ stewardship of the situation must remain consistent, at least for the time being.

Which leads one to ask, what happens after the “time being”? Many pundits have speculated that Gates tenure in the Obama Administration will be short. That his job will be to maintain status quo until the new president can get his bearings and begin to implement his vision. (This is, of course has something to do with Obama’s focus on the economy, which he views as his top priority).