Gates
Very much enjoys working for Obama. Or maybe, he prefers it to not working for him. Which might be a good thing, considering …
So when it comes to Afghanistan, is Gates sucking up or standing up? Kicking off the Gates news with a Cabinet member’s obligatory suckup, here he is at CNN:
“He is very analytical,” Gates told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King. “He is very deliberate about the way he goes through things. He wants to understand everything. He delves very deeply into these issues.”
Gates, who previously worked for 27 years in the CIA under six presidents, was the first defense secretary to be asked to remain in office by a newly-elected president when Obama kept him on.
The Pentagon chief was diplomatic when comparing Obama to other former occupants of the Oval Office.
“I’m not going to get into comparing the different presidents, Gates said. “I very much enjoy working for this one.”
Gates is a career bureaucrat, and understands comparing the boss to any of the last six presidents would be a quick ticket out the door. Lessee, Jimmy Carter? I don’t think, his actions and inactions not withstanding, Obama wants to be called that any more than he’d want to be called Bill Clinton. Bush, Bush or Reagan? Nope, nope and nope.
Meanwhile, Gates is either a great, principled American or he’s the Obama admin’s toe in the water on Afghanistan. WSJ, Gates: Setting Afghan Withdrawal Date Would Be “Strategic Mistake.” Gates explains it would make us look like Soviet-style losers, and hand a second superpower scalp to the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Presumably even Obama gets how ugly Americans can be about losers.
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Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:26 pm Comments (2) on Sunday, September 27, 2009
2 Responses to “Gates”
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September 28th, 2009 at 7:38 am
[...] Jules considers Sec. Gates’ characterization of Obama as cerebral and deliberate . . . on the issue of Afghanistan, where he seems inclined to take the advice of Joe Biden over that of his generals, just as he prefers Eric Holders to 7 previous CIA directors’. [...]
September 28th, 2009 at 8:29 am
Anyone who has been a Federal employee since 1982 can claim they worked for 6 presidents. This is hardly a major qualification.
But I suppose the reporter had to find something nice to say, huh?