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US CTO Choice Down To a Two-Horse Race
theodp writes "Barack Obama apparently didn't return CmdrTaco's call. BusinessWeek reports that the choices for the first US CTO have narrowed, and it's now a two-horse race between Padmasree Warrior, Cisco's CTO, and Vivek Kundra, who holds the same title for the Government of the District of Columbia. Two very different resumes — which would you advise Obama to pick?" I just know I was #3 on the list.
Either way, the position is going to be mostly a figurehead. Unless Obama delegates some serious executive power over the federal bureaucracy, this will just be a cushy job for the next several years.
The CTO needs to be able to override agency decisions, put mandates on them and punish them for non-compliance. I seriously doubt that Obama is going to go that far. One of the first ones should be to stop the Oracle lovefest, and make it federal policy to stop using Oracle on most federal systems that have less than a few hundred users.
Right, the government sucks, so by no means should you consider working for the government, even if the point of the particular job they're offering you is to make the government less sucky. I guess the suckiness of government is somebody else's problem.
You know, your attitude sucks.
You leeches, you scrimp on your taxes, never thank the government, and then have the gall to tar all public servents - people who spend their best years serving YOU - with the same, tired accusations. Tell me, how to you square the 'public service = cushy' claim with the 'US = most powerful country' circle? Do you think the infrastructure, social safety net, military, judiciary, etc., all just run on automatic?
Mod parent up. Never understood this particular American obsession with tearing down the government and then proudly claiming it sucks. Sounds insane to me.
Blame Ronnie Raygun. He popularized the idea that "government is the problem", while blowing enormous quantities of money on militarization, possibly in hopes of bankrupting the federal government. Never trust someone to run something when they believe it's a stupid idea to begin with, they'll usually just mess it up.
"He may look like an idiot, and talk like an idiot, but don't let that fool you. He really is an idiot." - Duck Soup
Obviously you have done zero research into these two candidates. To begin with the "dude from Cisco" is a female who used to be CTO for Motorola. Let's take a look at how well Motorola had been doing under her "direction". They are still feeling the ill effects of that. While I know nothing about Vivek, I do know that I would not want someone who has run a historically innovative company like Motorola into the ground!
The government really began to stink it up when it became possible to make a career out of being a politician. Back in the day, and I mean way back when, work in the US government was considered a service to the country and not a means to make oneself rich. The combination of capitalism and government was a terrible idea and there needs to be some reform to change the wealth in the political system. Just my personal opinion.
"Educate the mind but never at the expense of the soul."~Blessed Basil Moreau