The US CTO - what about buy side CIOs?

As with this list the WSJ blog put together, there appears to be no shortage of candidates the Obama team has to sort through - for a position which may not even get created.

But the majority of proposed candidates come from vendor world. Personally, I think a Gary Reiner from GE or a Rob Carter from Fedex would make a much better candidate. They have shown years of experience keeping runaway IT projects in check, delivering appropriate innovation, keeping tech vendors in line - all that our government tech needs in spades.

BTW  - I hope the CTO is given a wide berth, cross-departmental access - so allowed to nudge the FCC when necessary to get telcos moving, make the TSA more electronic in its security, the DOE more green, take what NASA is innovating across departments etc.