Obama's CTO and the boat-anchor of legacy issues

The Obama administration's new idea to appoint a national CTO is already getting messy.  Is the national CTO a bureaucrat? A visionary?  A technologist?  Remains to be seen.

From Dan Farber @ News.com:  Obama's CTO: Watch-out for the turf wars

Infoworld's take:  Google-enabled government starts with Obama's CTO (do we really want that?)

Eric Schmidt's take, from Reuters:  No thanks

Curt Monash from NetworkWorld debates CTO vs. CIO

This is a big job that could easily get bogged down in such enormous IT infrastructure issues that it misses the opportunity to dramatically change the way government and its citizens use technology.  This is one of the differences between campaigning for president and governing as president:  when you are campaigning, you get to act like a start-up - you don't have to worry about "legacy" problems.  When you are president, however, you inherit the legacy issues of enormous infrastructures.  Can Obama push forward the vision of change in the face of managing "legacy" issues?  Can his CTO separate the new social initiatives from the necessary legacy, and adequately invest in both?