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 ...
Surgeon General is in fact, not a pointless job at all in a single-payer universal health care system, or any health care system that is heavily government subsidized. You become the doctor who decides WHOSE LIVES and WHO DIES.
can’t say that i can find fault with this selection either, probably the best appointment he has made to date.
Eric Holder is a lousy pick for AG...Obamessiah should go for Judge Judy.
That should be “who LIVES and who DIES”— and you “educate” everyone else as to the incredible wisdom of your insights....
Does it matter to you that he went head to head battle with Michael Moore over SICKO?
Let’s do it this way ... who would rather become the surgeon general? You have to pick someone who has a reasonable chance of being picked by this administration. Bet you can’t think of one.
He’s a good choice.
This is REAL life ... not a movie!
Why would you assume otherwise?
The MTV presidency continues...a total joke.
You don’t think Obama was going to pick someone that we approved of do you?
Gupta is a good choice.
I know..right? What’s next? Paula Deen for head of the FDA?
Name Sarah Palin's kids: Trigg, Piper, et al ...
Why do you think the Gupta pick is a joke? The guy’s a brilliant neurosurgeon.
I think this is a good choice. I mean, I’m getting sick of seeing him on the TV at the doctor’s office. Maybe they can get 2 hot chicks now? :)
Mandatory universal socialized health non care has arrived!!!
Maybe because he thinks he can make more of a difference in the field of public health? This guy went to U of Michigan medical school and got a neurosurgery residency. That tells me he is very, very smart and very, very driven.
I have some personal acquaintances who consider themselves qualified. My objections to him include his prior experience on Hillary’s health care task force, and the fact that Obama’s plans clearly are not much different from the ones formulated there. I am not familiar with SICKO at all, so I don’t understand why this makes him some kind of hero. The Surgeon General becomes the fount of wisdom on why some sectors of society and some ill people should have less access to health services than others due to their Health Status (too old, too sick, too malformed, too unformed, etc. to deserve medical intervention). This is a SERIOUS issue! And I don’t know why Obama can’t come up with someone who didn’t work for Hillary!
I’ll go with the comment that he is qualified but then wait for the major medical organizations in the US who stand up behind Gupta....and we will be waiting a long, long time. Most of these big-name organizations will want a guy who has “paid” his time and has earned alot of respect via the national “market”. Gupta does a good job on TV and I personally respect him as a neutral journalist...but beyond that....the guy doesn’t have years of experience.
I’m getting the impression that it takes a limited sales job to get Obama talked into accepting something (the fact that Caroline Kennedy is talked as the next VP already...is unsettling). I think he is showing his limited executive ability and experience already.
Sounds like a good choice to me.
Sicko was made by Michael Moore. I think you have heard of him at least. Google it if necessary.
See, you were not able to come up with a realistic name of someone Obama COULD have named instead of Gupta. You would have hated all of them.
(ignore the snivelers...most lecture on every thread where the messiah is criticized)
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