I'm a little conflicted on the wisdom of keeping Robert Gates as Defense Secretary (it sort of depends on how far he's willing to go in service of Obama's agenda, and I can't judge that from afar), but I'm really skeptical of anonymous quotes from "former high-ranking defense officials." One of the nice things about Gates is that he's proven surprisingly independent of the military and defense infrastructures, and has thus been able to deploy his credibility in service of certain projects and initiatives that aren't terrible popular with the brass. That, in fact, is the case for keeping him on: That he's proven a uniquely independent actor and would be more effective at pushing Obama's military agenda than a similarly inclined Democrat would be. But these same qualities have doubtlessly made him a lot of enemies, and without the ability to judge who exactly is trashing his name, it's hard to say if they have good reasons for doing some or if their opposition is yet another argument in favor of keeping Gates.
