Apart from Barack Obama, that is. One way of measuring influence, in Washington, Whitehall or elsewhere, is to ask: how much damage would this person’s resignation do? By that standard, there are only two really, truly important people in the Obama administration: Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates. And only one of them has the power to walk away from their job. Clinton is trapped since, barring some total fiasco she cannot resign without damaging her own prospects and reputation.
The Defense Secretary is a different matter. Gates’s reputation in Washington is now such that he’s the indispensable man. Just as Colin Powell was the only man whose resignation could, perhaps, have stalled the push for the Iraq War, so Gates is the man who could, were he so minded, cripple the Obama administration’s national security policy.
So I recommend Mike Crowley’s New Republic excellent piece
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