Apparently, Gates wrote this before Obama tapped him to stay on as Secretary of Defense, as advice for the next guy to have the job.  But reading it, you can see why Obama would want to keep him at the Pentagon.  

Gates calls for the military to balance it’s strategy between preparing for conventional threats and winning the wars it is currently fighting.  Reading this, it is clear that Gates is extremely pragmatic and forward-looking.  His call for hard choices regarding military spending and weapon systems procurement should please liberals, have long opposed wasteful, bloated pentagon budgets.  At the same time, he emphasizes the importance of success in Iraq and Afganistan, which should reassure conservatives wary of Obama.  His recognition of the limits of American military power stand in stark contrast to Rumsfeld and Bush.

There are many difficult decisions to be made that will upset the status quo in the military, and  I doubt Obama by himself could have pushed through the necessary reforms.  Gates, on the other hand, has earned the respect of the military establishment.  Since he seems not only willing, but eager to use his national security bona fides to shake up the system, it seems that Obama made a very wise decision asking Gates to stick around.

While Obama is taking great pains to distinguish himself from the current administration, he is also taking one page from Bush’s playbook — discipline.  Although the number of leaks from the Obama camp has greatly increased since the election, the overall level of drama has been remarkably low.  I don’t anticipate a repeat of the drama of the Clinton years, even with Hillary at the State department and Bill Clinton continuing to…well…be Bill Clinton.

The transition is fun to watch, but I  think it will be more interesting to see how Obama governs, particularly when something goes wrong.  Can he salvage a bill headed to a narrow defeat in congress? How open will he be if a scandal erupts?  Will any poorly performing or scandal-plagued advisers or cabinet member “enjoy the full confidence of the president” until they retire to “spend time with their family”, or will Obama fire them to show everyone where the buck stops?

Bush came into office claiming to be the first CEO president and maybe he was right.  Unfortunately for the country, he was more like the CEO of a big three automaker than a Steve Jobs or a Warren Buffett.

If Obama is successful, it will be because he is able to be something we haven’t seen in quite a while — a presidential president.