Gerald F. Seib has a highly informative column, Obama's Decision to Keep Gates Looks Even Better up in the Wall Street Journal that details the central role Robert Gates has played in several of the recent policy decisions by the Obama administration. Primary among these are the decisions regarding the release of the torture memos:

The debate over harsh interrogation methods. First, Mr. Gates provided important political cover to the president by endorsing his decision to release the secret memos the Bush administration used to justify waterboarding and other interrogation tactics for terrorism suspects. That decision still was attacked by those who thought the disclosure harmed American intelligence efforts, but Mr. Gates's endorsement went a long way toward muting the criticism.

and the blocking of the release of detainee abuse photos:

Then, just this week, he helped keep the president out of hot water by tipping a second, related decision in the opposite direction. Mr. Gates successfully argued that the administration should try to block the court-ordered release of photos of prisoners under interrogation. He channeled into the White House military commanders' deep worries about a backlash against American soldiers in the Islamic world if the photos were released. That was enough to persuade key White House aides, and ultimately Mr. Obama, who reversed his previous position and decided to go to court to stop the release.

Changing course was politically embarrassing for the president, but that problem likely pales when compared with the attacks from critics and the military itself that likely would have followed unchallenged release of the photos.

Mr. Seib's column also goes into an interesting discussion of the role Gates played in helping Obama manuever through the pitfalls of replacing the commander in Afghanistan:

A change of commanders in Afghanistan. The decision to replace the head of allied forces in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, had the potential to set off fireworks on both the right and left. On the right, there could have been a furor if a relatively new Obama appointee, rather than Mr. Gates, had decided to dump such a senior military officer in the midst of his tour. At the same time, there could have been an uproar on the left because he is being succeeded by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, a commander whose background is in the shadowy world of special operations, including seizing and handling terrorism suspects.

But because the switch was a joint Obama-Gates maneuver, criticism was muted on both sides, and largely drowned out by cheers over a decisive shift in approach in Afghanistan.

There's more, including Gates' deft handling of dealing with the Pentagon budget, and i recommend reading the whole article, but I think the above passages give important insight into how the members of Obama's cabinet are helping Obama navigate through a minefield of political issues.

Then from Tom Rick's Foreign Policy page we learn the following:

I am told that General Odierno's objections to the timing of the release of a new round of photos of detainees being abused in Iraq were decisive to President Obama's decision Wednesday to reverse himself and decide against the release of those photos.

I am surprised by Obama's reversal. I wasn't so taken aback in February when he went along with his generals and abandoned his campaign promise to withdraw a brigade a month from Iraq this year, and instead endorsed a plan that kept troop levels there pretty steady this year. But to get rolled twice -- well, he must think he is running up some pretty big chits with them. I know he is trying to do the right thing but at some point he is going to have to say, My way or the highway.

Considering that Obama is just four months into his administration, it's probably a good thing that Obama is taking advice from the people who have been on the job for a long time, and have valuable insight into what has actually been going on on the ground, as well as in the halls of the Pentagon. Obama appears to be on track in building a broad base of support in the military, something that is absolutley neccessary if he is going to be able to count on these same people to help get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Matt Iglesias, on whom's Think Progress page I found this link, makes an insightful comment:

I think you can probably put slow-walking change on Don't Ask Don't Tell in the same box. But is Obama really going to have to say something like that at some point? Realistically, the political damage to a Democratic President of off-the-record grousing by the brass could be large. With major health care and energy reforms live in congress, I think generals will be getting things "their way" for a while yet.

One point that I would like to add, that no else seems to be making, is that President Obama has completely stifled any possible criticism from the GOP that he isn't listening to his generals and working to provide the military with what it needs to function effectively. Some of Obama's most recent public statements on the issue were recorded in the May 13 New York Times article Obama Moves to Bar Release of Detainee Abuse Photos:

"The publication of these photos would not add any additional benefit to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by a small number of individuals," Mr. Obama told reporters on the South Lawn. "In fact, the most direct consequence of releasing them, I believe, would be to further inflame anti-American opinion and to put our troops in greater danger."

*****

Officials who have seen the photos describe them as falling into two categories: Abu Ghraib-style personal snapshots taken by soldiers; and photos taken by military criminal investigators documenting allegations of abuse, including autopsy photos of prisoners who died in custody.

*****

In his remarks at the White House, Mr. Obama spoke out forcefully against torture and said he had impressed upon military commanders "that the abuse of detainees in our custody is prohibited and will not be tolerated." But as commander in chief, he said, the well-being of American forces carrying out his strategy in Afghanistan and Iraq outweighed the call to release the images.

"Moreover," he said, "I fear the publication of these photos may only have a chilling effect on future investigations of detainee abuse."