Keeping Gates in place sends the signal that Obama, who faces a host of hard jobs, is not eager to take on the Pentagon at the start of his presidency. ~David Corn

This seems right, but whether we’re talking about spending levels or anything else there was never much reason to think that Obama wanted to “take on” the Pentagon. This is the sort of thing that McCain surrogates wanted you to believe, but it was clearly not so. Obama’s remarks that he wanted to cut out wasteful spending at the Pentagon could have been made just as easily by his opponent–and they were! As more than a few people noted at the time, Obama and McCain even supported cutting the same kinds of weapons programs. Now before Obama fans begin shrieking that I am saying that there are no differences between the two, let me state that this is not my point and I am not saying that. The point is that no one should ever have confused Obama for a Pentagon-fighting, “defense” budget-slashing type.