Who should be the CTO of the USA?

While there are a couple of worthy candidates on this list, I think that most of these people are not a good match for the job requirements (many of which you enumerated). Kundra was barely known in the IT community, but brought a modern perspective to his role in DC. In addition to strong communication skills, political savvy, and leadership ability, I'd like the CTO to have made both key technology and key business decisions, and to be thoroughly familiar with current issues across a broad range of hardware and software, ranging from web application development to mobile and broadband deployment. Someone like Judy Estrin comes much closer to my concept of a CTO than does anyone on your list.

A lot of the priorities that have been mentioned are the CIO's turf, whatever you may think of the individual tapped there.

Any CTO has a broad portfolio, but the US CTO's number 1 priority should be security. On a strategic level, that's where the fire is hottest at this particular time.

This is not only cyber-defense - though that's critically important. It's also the whole range of issues, both technically and socially based, inherent in current technologies and practices at every level. These issues are the source of real damage and rapidly increasing fear, uncertainty and doubt that impedes the adoption of emerging technologies. Some are subject to relatively straightforward fixes, but some go very deep.

Let's draft Richard A. Clarke.

I think most of these people like bill gates would not have good motivations behind what they do. For instance gates needs to give out a government contract for a company to develop software for public schools or something... I wonder which software development company he might choose.. Microsoft seems fitting.