Face "The Nation"

The euphonically-named Katrina Vanden Heuvel takes Barack Obama to task for keeping Robert Gates on as Secretary of Defense. And while I disagree with Vanden Heuvel's policies, she does make a pretty fair point:

Maybe being right about the greatest foreign policy disaster in US history doesn't mean much inside the Beltway? How else to explain that not a single top member of Obama's foreign policy/national security team opposed the war--or the dubious claims leading up to it?

For someone who stressed his "judgment" over and over again during the campaign, it is a bit peculiar that Obama's stocking his cabinet with the sort of people he blasted for having the "bad" judgment. What about Change? What about Hope?

My guess is that Obama wants to prevent controversy of any kind during his first few months in office. He's already made it clear that he's going to work fast; after all, congressional leaders are saying they'll send him a multi-billion dollar stimulus bill the day of his inauguration.

To drive out Gates--and to replace him with the sort of liberal Vanden Heuvel would no doubt prefer--would just be asking for trouble. Obama does want to stay the course--for the next couple months at least. My advice to Vanden Heuvel is to wait a bit. Once Obama's gotten some of his economic solutions in the can, we'll see how he really governs.