By Richard Miller
Author, “In Words and Deeds: Battle Speeches History”

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stays — and that’s good news for most Americans. First, it confirms President-elect Obama’s pledge to include Republicans in his cabinet. And this is a special Republican indeed, the importance of whose portfolio is equaled only by the State Department. (Well, given the current economic crisis, perhaps the Treasury Department has bumped up a few status notches in recent months.)

In accepting the appointment, does Mr. Gates know something we don’t?

Nevertheless, this appointment coupled with the rather smart group of moderates Obama has selected for his economics team suggests that the bus that always seems to be following our next president still has some room underneath for yet one more group of ex-friends—the MoveOn.org crowd.

And this raises another question: in accepting the appointment, does Mr. Gates know something we don’t? (Of course, with the highest security clearance possible, he knows plenty that we don’t, but that’s not what I mean.)

Defense Secretary Robert Gates/AP Photo

It seems likely that Mr. Gates would not have consented to continue at Defense if, as president, Obama was intent on pursuing a MoveOn.org defense policy, such as immediate withdrawal from Iraq, cancelling either the missile defense program or the deployment agreements negotiated with Poland.

Nor would Mr.Gates likely stay on to oversee drastic bone-cutting budget cuts to the military or even the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” for gays in the military. After all, even a patriot of Gates’ standing would likely respond that radical departures from current defense policy are best handled by somebody new and more in tune with President Obama’s thinking. Which leaves one to wonder whether any of these liberal notions were ever really part of Mr. Obama’s thinking.

What if it turned out that the Obama that everyone said nobody knew was a really centrist Democrat in a Southside Chicago left-wing suit?

With the reported reappointment of Gates, we now have reason to hope that Obama’s “move to the center” might have been more than just a summertime campaign ploy. What if it turned out that the Obama that everyone said nobody knew was a really centrist Democrat in a Southside Chicago left-wing suit? Based on (almost) every appointment made thus far, that’s sure the way it looks. In fact, maybe the guys who never knew Obama were the Rev. Wright and his ilk.

And if that’s true, then I’ve just discovered the true meaning of “ignorance is bliss.”