Gates: Obama's Most Effective Secretary

Unless he changes his mind again

(NEWSER) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates has always hated Washington, and he plans to get the heck out sometime next year, he revealed today in a lengthy interview with Fred Kaplan for Foreign Policy . “I think that it would be a mistake to wait until January 2012,” he reasons. “It might be hard to find a good person to take the job so late” in Barack Obama’s term, he reasons. Besides “this is not the kind of job you want to fill in the spring of an election year.” More»

Defense secretary earns Obama's trust on Afghanistan-Pakistan

(NEWSER) - In 2008, under another president, Robert Gates spent 115 days traveling to Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, and 23 other countries. But this year, writes the New York Times, the defense secretary has been spending much more time in Washington. Gates, the only holdover from the Bush Cabinet, has slowly secured a key role under Barack Obama, the eighth president he has served. More»

A look back at the retiring defense secretary's career

(NEWSER) - With Robert Gates, who has served eight presidents over four decades, about to retire, the Washington Post looks back at how Gates operated in the Pentagon. He’s been “careful, conservative, and consensus-oriented,” writes Greg Jaffe, and he’s “earned a reputation as the most ruthlessly efficient defense secretary in decades.” So what can we learn from his tenure?

• Buy time. Defense Department reviews following troop surges in Iraq and Afghanistan gave Presidents Bush and Obama a sense of the military’s trajectory—and they bought time against critics calling for quick drawdowns.

Move an admission that detention center is here to stay

(NEWSER) - President Obama has given Robert Gates the go-ahead to initiate new military commissions against Guantanamo detainees—something Obama originally banned on the first day of his presidency. Within weeks one or more detainees may face new charges—the Justice Department has already designated some prisoners for military tribunal, including suspected US Cole attack mastermind Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the New York Times reports. More»

They threatened to move without him

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama went ahead with a plan to repeal “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” only because Congress dragged him into it kicking and screaming. Lawmakers, particularly Nancy Pelosi and Carl Levin, threatened to push ahead without Obama, and he reluctantly struck a deal. “Levin made it clear that the train was leaving the station,” the leader of a gay advocacy group tells Talking Points Memo . “The White House not only was not conducting, they weren't even on board.” More»