Bob Gates was brought in as DefSec by Poppy to help clean up Dubya's mess. I seriously doubt that he intends to stick around, and I wonder whether as POTUS John McCain or Sarah Palin would adhere to Gates' "realistI approach. McCain has people close to him who want to help salvage the position of Georgian President Saaskasvili, and I am unsure that the Gates approach is sufficiently "robust" for these folks. With respect to Palin, she probably derives her notions of geopolitics and strategic policy from the Book of Revelation.