Posted on 01/06/2009 11:52:26 AM PST by BGHater
President-elect Barack Obama has offered the job of surgeon general to Sanjay Gupta, the neurosurgeon and correspondent for CNN and CBS, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation.
Gupta has told administration officials that he wants the job, and the final vetting process is under way. He has asked for a few days to figure out the financial and logistical details of moving his family from Atlanta to Washington but is expected to accept the offer.
When reached for comment today, Gupta did not deny the account but declined to comment.
The offer followed a two-hour Chicago meeting in November with Obama, who said that Gupta could be the highest-profile surgeon general in history and would have an expanded role in providing health policy advice, the sources said. Gupta later spoke with Tom Daschle, Obama's White House health czar and nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, and other advisers to the president-elect.
The Michigan-born son of Indian and Pakistani parents, Gupta has always been drawn to health policy. He was a White House fellow in the late 1990s, writing speeches and crafting policy for Hillary Clinton. His appointment would give the administration a prominent official of Southwest Asian descent and a skilled television spokesman.
Gupta, who hosts "House Call" on CNN, has discussed the job offer with his bosses at CBS and CNN to make sure he could be released from his contractual obligations, the sources said.
His role as journalist and physician have sometimes overlapped. During the 2003 Iraq invasion, Gupta was embedded with a Navy unit called Devil Docs and, while covering its mission, performed brain surgery five times, the first of which was on a 2-year-old Iraqi boy.
(Excerpt) Read more at voices.washingtonpost.com ...
“How do you think he got the journalism job?”
I’m guessing because the guy is a well educated physician.
Why would a good brain surgeon—or a good journalist—want a political desk job? On second thought, you’re right, he’s not the run-of-the-mill bureaucrat, except for the fact he’s a Clinton retread.
No relation. His father worked at a Ford plant.
“Dr. Gupta makes Dr. Phil look like 3rd world medicine man. This is a good choice, or at the very least, Dr. Gupta’s career as a successful and bright neurosurgeon is well documented.’
and his qualifications are not to run a HUGE government operation. He isn’t an ADMINISTRATOR. None of these Clinton paybacks are. he’s as qualified as Leon Panetta, though!
I’m surprised he didn’t ask for Dr. Oz from Oprah’s show.
“Why would a good brain surgeon—or a good journalist—want a political desk job?”
That’s the right question to be asking....his qualifications aren’t in question...but his motives would be.
Doesn’t seem like too bad of a guy. Anybody know if he’s a flaming liberal who seems likely to use the position to advocate for abortion, against firearms, etc.?
Does the fact that he worked for Hillary’s secret health care task force to promote socialized medicine give you any pause? I know he’s a TV star, and all, but let’s not let his celebrity status blind us!
He did a LOT of good during his tenure and saved the Commissioned Corps from extinction.
Professor Irwin Corey for Secretary of Education!
He is an accomplished, recognized neurosurgeon.
It is a great pick.
Choose your battles with BO - this is not the one to fight.
It certainly pays better than being a physician in the socialized medicine system would!
But they will be educated decision, i am confident. I hate 0bama as much as anyone else here, but at least he made one good pick, or at least it seems so right now.
He’s a brain surgeon. Why would it be good to take a good brain surgeon out of circulation and stick him in “figurehead” job?
Plural of decision is decisions, Travis. DUH!
He’a already “out of circulation” and playing telejournalist on CNN.
His kids are named Sage, Sky, and Neal. Smells like granola from my end but you never know.
See, and you almost had the job of Grammar General sewed up until that unfortunate faux pas.
Jocelyn Elders isn’t available?
“We are not like the shrill liberals who hated everything Bush did.”
Actually, there are too many suffering from an ODS that makes them seem like Kos-ites.
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