IU alumnus Gates to stay on as Obama’s defense secretary

President-elect Barack Obama’s National Security team will include a familiar face – both to the nation and to IU.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, an IU alumnus, will keep his position, Obama announced Monday at a press conference in Chicago.

Gates served in this role since 2006 under President George W. Bush. He earned a master’s degree in history from IU in 1966.

Gates is the only member of the Bush administration slated to join Obama’s, which makes his appointment rare, professors said.

Though recent presidents tried to include one official from the opposing party, it’s not common to retain someone in a high-profile position, said Edward Carmines, professor of political science.

“He’s been one of the few stars in the Bush administration,” Carmines said of Gates. “It probably made sense to keep him. At least for the short term.”

William Bianco, professor of political science, said the selection was a smart one that showed Obama would govern more from the center than the left.

“The big question about Obama is whether he was going to govern form the left or govern from the center,” Bianco said. “This is a return to a more bipartisan foreign policy.”

Obama also nominated Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., his former rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, for Secretary of State.

Carmines said the combination of Gates, Clinton and Gen. James L. Jones makes a strong team to focus on international relations so Obama can focus on the economic crisis at hand, Carmines said. He added Gates wasn’t “the architect of the invasion of Iraq.” Therefore, he’d be more likely to stick to Obama’s 16-month withdrawal timetable, Carmines said.

“I think (Obama) wants to have the strongest team in place so he doesn’t have to monitor that from minute to minute,” Carmines said. “These international challenges don’t go away just because you have an economic crisis to deal with.”

Students who campaigned for Clinton had mixed thoughts on the selection. Graduate student Alicia Keebaugh said she thinks Clinton could do more in the Senate to make an impact. But Keebaugh said she believes Clinton would do a good job even if it’s not the right move for her.

“It’s very smart in some ways,” Keebaugh said. “It’s a way to reunite the Democratic Party, especially as the Republican Party is falling apart.”

Other former Clinton campaigners were excited about the pick and said it would re-unite the Democratic Party with Obama and Clinton working together.

“It’s an opportunity for her to have more of an impact than she could as a senator,” said sophomore Kelsey Brizzolara. “It kind of also silences some of the critics that were saying they’d never be able to work together.”

Graduate student Justin Ellison said he was also pleased with the pick because of Clinton’s position overseas. He said this shows she cares more about the country than a rivalry.

“I think in the Senate she is such a junior member and that she’s not really in line for any committee chairmanship,” he said. “I think they’ve made their peace earlier. I think she campaigned pretty hard for him.”

The already cliché ‘team of rivals’ moniker suggests that perhaps the group won’t be able to work together.

But John Karaagac, a lecturer in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, said Gates is “trusted by the military” more than former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Karaagac said the selections show that Obama is trying to please both Republicans and Democrats and said although the pick is surprising, it’s smart.

“I think Barack Obama was much more centrist and politically undefined than his supporters perhaps realized,” Karaagac said.

Brizzolara said she didn’t think pairing Obama and Clinton together would hinder their effect.

“I never saw them as against each other,” Brizzolara said. “I saw them working towards the same goals in different ways. I don’t think it’s really a conflict of interest because they both have a lot of the same stances on issues.”

Bianco said he believes Clinton was the right woman for the job, and it showed Obama’s ability to unite different types of people.

“It is really rare in politics that you see a politician with the confidence to do something like this,” Bianco said. “Obama didn’t have to do this.”