Robert Gates
AGE: 63
OCCUPATION: Secretary of Defense
NUMBER OF TIME COVERS: 0
PREVIOUS APPEARANCES ON THE TIME 100: 0
PRO: The former Director of Central Intelligence was called in to help turn things around in Iraq, bring a real-politic sensibility and level-headedness to the Pentagon, and to smooth over interagency relations eroded by his predecessor Donald Rumsfeld. He has already helped patch things up with the CIA.
CON: Dick Cheney, good friend and key supporter of Donald Rumsfeld and his program, remains a big power in the White House. He has also clashed with the Secretary of State over personnel issues in the renewed effort to rebuild Iraq. And is the Iraq war even winnable at this point?