Obama and Gates

David Ignatius in the Washington Post discusses a role for Defense Secretary Robert Gates in a potential Obama Administration. Matt Yglesias has what I think of as the definitive take on this talk of Obama keeping Gates on as a move toward bi-partisan reconciliation, saying essentially that keeping on Gates reinforces the notion that Democrats are inherently weak on national security issues. Obviously, this is an idea of recent, post Vietnam coinage, and I think it’s one that an Obama Administration should be anxious to put to bed. However, Ignatius is recommending something else: instead of keeping Gates on at the Pentagon, he recommends putting Gates in charge of a commission to reform the intelligence community (for real, this time).

Why not appoint Gates to head a special commission to revise the basic framework of the National Security Act of 1947? He knows all the pieces of this puzzle -- having run the CIA and worked at the National Security Council earlier in his career.

Certainly, Gates’ predecessor has allowed him to look almost messianic in comparison, and he has been doing a competent job with the post. In particular, his efforts to reform the Air Force seem like an encouraging development. I can certainly see why Obama would want to include Gates in a commission of this sort. But once again, Obama needs to emphasize that it’s not just Republicans who can deal with national security.

Creating a Gates Commission certainly has appeal if you believe bipartisanship to be an unmitigated good. I’m not so sure that that’s so. Good policy and good government simply does not always require that a Republican and a Democrat need to be in the room together at the same time. It certainly can’t hurt, but I don’t think it’s always a good if it continues to reinforce a negative, destructive narrative.