

Whitehouse: Where is the CTO? - cjoh
http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/02/10/white-house-where-is-the-cto/

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tptacek
The Obama administration has, according to Marc Ambinder at the Atlantic,
already set a sort of record for number of cabinet/subcabinet appointments
pushed through in ~20 days. Apparently, appointments usually pick up steam
starting in March, after the budget is taken care of in Congress.

Presumably, the CTO is pretty low on the list of priorities compared to many
of the other positions (like HHS) that remain unfilled.

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TomOfTTB
First let me just say this isn't an anti-Obama post. So if you absolutely love
him try to hear me out here.

That said the featured post is more about transparency than it is about
actually filling the position. On that note I think it's time for the Obama
people to realize "Transparent Government" was more a campaign promise than an
actual reality.

I mean, he probably intended everything he said but in reality you just can't
make it happen. No matter how smart, how well intentioned, how good hearted,
or whatever. You still need to play politics and that goal is contrary to
complete transparency.

Let me give an example. Money is going to have to be cut from a lot of good
programs. So say you're President Obama and you have Aids research and Cancer
research and you have to cut money from one. Cancer kills about 570,000
Americans a year ([http://ezinearticles.com/?How-Many-People-Die-From-Cancer-
Ea...](http://ezinearticles.com/?How-Many-People-Die-From-Cancer-Each-
Year?&id=1872925)) while Aids has killed about 570,000 since the Aids epidemic
began (<http://www.avert.org/statsum.htm>).

So the President, being forced to pick one, cuts funding for Aids research and
suddenly loses the vote of every person who uses that as their hedge issue.
Politics is a game of pushing people's emotional buttons and that's simply
incompatible with the very rational idea of Transparency.

If Obama supporters really want him to succeed they'll need to come to terms
with the fact that he won't be able to fill some of his more ambition promises
in the current economic crisis. This woman's view of what a National CTO will
be is almost certainly going to be one of those unfulfilled promises.

(I can almost feel myself losing Karma points for this post but it doesn't
make it any less true)

~~~
eli
Yeah, but breaking campaign promises is more than just uncool, it's bad
politics. (Think "Read my lips: no new taxes")

~~~
TomOfTTB
I'm not sure that's always true.

Imagine a WW II era politician in London who gets elected on the promimse of
building a new University. Right after the election Germany declares war and
starts bombing London. Under those circumstances is it still wrong for him to
go back on his promise of building a University?

You have to judge people by the circumstances they're handed and sometimes
that means giving them a pass on certain promises

