I was sort of dismayed to hear the idea first floated, but it’s starting to sound less and less crazy. I’ll let Josh Marshall explain above. Watch the whole thing, and then click below the fold for more.

Okay, so it’s pretty clear that Gates is no Rumsfeld. The fact that he’s a Scowcroft man is certainly to his credit, and the fact that he’s stayed out of the spotlight by and large, I believe, is an indicator that he’s more of a competent bureaucrat than he is a nutty, neoconservative ideologue.

But on the other hand, keeping him around would send a pretty weird signal, when you think about it. It’s not just that it would garble up Obama’s “change” message; it would also be a tacit admission of the Republican argument that Democrats simply can’t be trusted when it comes to matter of national security. In effect, Obama would be saying, “Alright, I admit that the Democrats have no equally qualified people.”

But that’s a political argument, not a pragmatic policy argument. And it’s an argument based entirely on perceptions, not anything concrete. In terms of how Gates staying would translate into policy, it’s hard to tell, but my intuition with most of the people Obama’s picked or is rumored to pick so far is that even if they’re pretty far to his right, they’re not going to drastically influence the underlying principles on which he plans to govern; they’re going to give counsel and then follow out the president’s orders. No Dick Cheney faction in this White House, at least as far as I can tell.

And besides, not only would having Gates stay on put the military brass more at ease, but it would mean virtually no learning curve for the DoD. Which could be extremely crucial, what with us trying to get the fuck out of a war. Maybe it would be better to transition to a new Secretary of Defense in peacetime.

Really, though, who the hell knows? For all we know, this is just pointless rumor-mongering, and I’m only mentioning this particular cabinet pick because the idea seems to be gaining so much steam. Plus, it fits into the pattern that I’ve already started to pick up in Obama’s White House staff and appointments: He’s going for people who definitely don’t share his views, but are unquestionably experienced and good at their jobs.

Given what we’ve seen over the past eight years, I think it’s pretty safe to say that picking competence over ideological purity is a very smart move on Obama’s part.