Despite Barack Obama’s theme of “change,” throughout his presidential campaign, he’s keeping on Defense Secretary Robert Gates – at least through the first year of his term in the White House.

Various news reports are saying the arrangement is pretty much a “done deal,” even though President-elect Obama isn’t expected to announce his national security team until early next week.

Reuters, however, reports that sources said they don’t think either Gates or retired Marine Gen. James Jones — who is said to be named national security adviser – have reached a final pact with Obama. Gates apparently wants to keep certain members of his staff. While there’s consensus that Gates is no neoconservative war hawk, many around him are – and that may be cause for some concern from Democrats.

But no change in defense chief? That may not be a bad thing right now. With two badly mismanaged wars going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, the work Gates has done since taking over for Donald Rumsfeld has been a marked improvement from his predecessor.

The New York Times says some Democrats who have advised Obama are less than thrilled at the pick, given Obama’s past commitment to end the war. But Gates also wants to draw down troops in Iraq as soon as it’s safe.

“From our point of view, it looks pretty damn good because of continuity and stability,” one Obama adviser said. “And I don’t think there are any ideological problems.”

Meanwhile, Obama’s top adviser on intelligence, John Brennan, withdrew his name out of the running for any future intelligence job. He was thought to be a top contender for CIA chief.

Brennan is unhappy over the blogosphere associating him with controversial Bush administration interrogation techniques (i.e., waterboarding), detention and rendition policies, the latter of which is the practice of sending terror suspects to countries that practice torture, or something like it.

"It is with profound regret that I respectfully ask that my name be withdrawn from consideration for a position within the intelligence community. The challenges ahead of our nation are too daunting, and the role of the CIA too critical, for there to be any distraction from the vital work that lays ahead," Brennan wrote in a letter to Obama.

"It has been immaterial to the critics that I have been a strong opponent of many of the policies of the Bush administration such as the pre-emptive war in Iraq and coercive interrogation tactics, to include waterboarding.”

"This is a decision and an action that he made," a source on the Obama transition team told ABC News. The criticism from liberal groups and blogs was growing "and he felt it was becoming insurmountable."