On Election Day, the American people spoke very strongly that the direction the President and the Republican Party was taking America towards, is not the direction the country wanted to go in. Presidents are not oblivious to polls. They may not honor them, but they are not oblivious to them. The most important issue in the campaign turned out to be two issues according to the exit polls. They were CORRUPTION, and IRAQ in that order.
The President was quick with a lightening type response to the election. I personally felt Donald Rumsfeld was going to be fired 3 or 4 weeks after the election to allow him to leave with his dignity intact. The President dispatched the now lamb duck Secretary within hours after the voters made their decisions. In doing so, the President is insuring that this Congress will ratify the nomination of Robert Gates, not a Democratic Congress convening in January of 07.
What type of man is Robert Gates, the D Sec as they call the Secretary of Defense? There are parallels to this selection. During the height of the View Nam war, after six plus years in office, Robert McNamara was a worn, beaten man troubled by his own running of that war. His children had even turned against him. His friends advised how can you continue to be a part of this mess? McNamara left, and Lyndon Johnson installed Clark Clifford, one of my heroes who was a legal advisor to every Democratic President since Harry Truman. Clifford was even Joe Kennedy