Sending the right message

President-elect Barack Obama has made a landmark decision to ask former CIA chief Robert Gates, currently serving in his second Republican administration, to stay on as the nation's secretary of defense.

Sen. Obama, who takes office as president on Jan. 20, will reportedly announce his selection of Mr. Gates and other "members of a national security brain trust" this week.

Mr. Gates was reportedly asked to remain at least through the first year of President Obama's term. It appears Mr. Gates would not have to be renominated or reconfirmed by the Senate.

This would mark the first time a defense secretary has remained under a new president from the opposing political party. Mr. Gates replaced Donald Rumsfeld, who had drawn widespread criticism for his handling of U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Some will be tempted to take the opportunity for an easy pot-shot at the president elect, put in office in part by a Democratic core constituency that hopes to see a quick withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan. "Change?" it would be easy to ask. "What change?"

In fact, the move is brilliant, and not just in the cynical sense that Republicans (Mr. Gates is considered a moderate Republican) "are better at defense."

First, the victory and ascension of Sen. Obama, who has no military experience, over Republican nominee John McCain, who does, might be expected to cause some consternation in the military. If Mr. Gates is retained, this sends a strong message of continuity to the armed forces in time of war -- a morale-builder and tacit guarantee, as it were, that the ammunition resupply will not suddenly dry up for some unit that finds itself in a firefight in a foreign land come Jan. 21.

Whether Mr. Gates will remain in place come 2011 is a very different question. But this unprecedented step sends an unmistakable message -- to friend and foe alike -- that any Obama administration "change" in military and foreign policy will not be hasty or ill-considered.

And it sends a second message, on the domestic political front. It gives concrete evidence that President Obama will put his staff to work solving American's domestic economic problems first -- as well he should -- while leaving the management of the armed forces to experienced hands.

What a change from two years ago, when all assumed "the war" would be the most pressing issue at hand.

This move goes beyond mere "bipartisan symbolism." Robert Gates is a far cry from some pretty nonentity hired to sit by the front window, wearing a "GOP" badge on his lapel.

Much of the credit went to Gen. David Petraeus, and rightly so. But at Defense, Mr. Gates helped engineer an astonishing turnaround for the United States in Iraq, where he oversaw the 2007 "surge" of roughly 30,000 troops that massively reduced violence and increased stability.

There's uncertainty enough in the economic sector. This would hardly be the time to let our enemies assume the top offices in the Pentagon sit empty, or full of packing crates and new staffers trying to find the ladies room. The young president-elect has "thought outside the box," and chosen well.