I think the Gates speech represents rather straightforward common-sense. Would that he had been able to do a line-edit on the Second Inaugural. But I thought this was funny from Brooks’ column:

I asked if it was a mistake to put the Pentagon in charge of postwar reconstruction in Iraq instead of the State Department. He thought for a long time but didn’t say anything.

If only we can find a man who can pull his chin and ears while thinking and saying nothing (in an engagingly folksy manner, of course)—that man, will be able to solve all our problems.