It's Gates ... Robert Gates

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MELISSA BLOCK, host:

Apparently the hardest name in the world to remember this week has been Robert. As in Secretary of Defense Robert Gates who also goes by Bob, you'd think that would be even easier to remember. Well, in a "60 Minutes" report on Sunday about the war in Afghanistan, a soldier at Camp Leatherneck introduced the secretary as Bill Gates. He seemed to take it all in stride.

Secretary ROBERT GATES (Department of Defense): Bill Gates is the really rich one.

(Soundbite of laughter)

BLOCK: Well, if there's one place where they should get his name right, it would be the Pentagon, right? He is the boss after all. Sadly, no. At a Tuesday ceremony at the Pentagon, he was called Ronald Gates and that brings us to Secretary Gates' boss, President Obama. He pointed out the defense secretary just before his big speech today and yep, he got it wrong too.

President BARACK OBAMA: We have our CIA Director Leon Panetta. We have our Secretary of Defense William Gates.

BLOCK: So far, we've found no truth to the rumor that Vice President Joe Biden calls Secretary Gates, little Bobby.

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