Obama wants Sanjay Gupta for Surgeon General

I won't complain about an embarassment of riches. By placing a high profile Dr. in this role it helps flush out the stink of Bush's politization and censorship of the office. The last Surgeon General was even barred from giving a keynote adress at the Special Olympics, because quote, "Don't you know who started that, that the other team." This apointment would allow this office to be both more transparent and raise its profile with the media and give it the power it needs to be a more affective public advocate for national health concerns.

this is a joke right? i still loathe this douchebag when i saw him debate michael moore over our fucked up healtchare system. this asshole believes profits come before people. please tell me this is a joke.

gupta is a douchebag, but he is a popular douchebag! maybe it will raise the awareness of the lack of american Dr's and surgeons in americas hospitals! you know?

and that in turn will help improve the shitty education system.

Okinawanmajik "lack of american Dr's and surgeons in americas hospitals! " This sounds a little racist to me. Dr. Gupta was born in MI so that makes him a natural American. He just happened to be born to parents from Indian and Pakistan. I don't think that you should blame doctors with Asian or any other foreign heritage for being the best doctors, or being doctors at all. You need to blame other Americans that are too lazy to study hard and go to med school.

Dr. Gupta brought up great points when he argued with Michael Moore on CNN. People need to understand that first med school is very expensive, and second the people that become doctors sacrifice a lot. Gupta wanted to make it clear that doctors need to make a living just like everyone else. Not only doctors but health care workers in general. Having universal health care without proper thinking will devastate these people, plus there is already a shortage of nurses and technologist. Although universal health care is needed there needs to be a balance so it wont hurt the health care employees.

Oh well, who needs proper health care in america anyway?

How about he makes Dr. Gupta supervise a complete overhall of the medical system, that would serve this capitalistic doctor well, I say. Hippocratic oath my ass.

Do Not Want!!!
http://current.com/items/89687541/sanjay_gupta_2006_why_i_would_vote_no_on_pot.h...

I heard him speak about cannabis on CNN and was disappointed at his choice. I leave CNN whenever he comes on.

Barack Obama is going to have balance - good and bad. I would have preferred good and good, but after George W. anything is an improvement. George W. was bad and bad, no balance.

I am not sure why I suddenly like this choice. I also tend to change CNN when he comes on, but admit to finding a certain undeniable strength to this pick.

Woooo go Obama, keep selling us out. We're nothing but statistics anyways.

Who needs CNN anyway when we have Current! I hope there is some good change to come of his decisions.

Gupta sucks, I'm with you betico, he's a corporate shill, typical for CNN. Used to be a news source before Turner sold us all out.

Can a corporate shill come clean given the chance? Doubt it, its a core issue. You are for the people or the profits there is no middle ground.

Medicine is a right, not a privilege. It is cheaper to have universal single payer health care than any other way. More equitable too. Before the Canadian system began to be corrupted by right wing thieves, the rich could not get better care than the poor and that made everyone's care better.

Corporate shill. Boo.

HOLY CRAP!!!! wuts up with all this news about OBAMA!??!?!?!!??!!? so he appointed people...every president has done so...y is it that every step/word/move he makes/takes makes the evening/current news?!?!?!?!
now i see why ppl were calling it "obama-mania"

ooh my!.. i cant bite my tongue anymore, but all this whining about Obama appointing pepole he sees fit for the job, reminds me of this NAS song, "YOU CAN HATE ME NOW".and aint a damn thing you can do about it now. Some of you peeps were so happy when Bush jr was doing his thing. How do feel about him now? Shut up and let this man at least try to rebuild what "somebody" tore down.

Along with Panetta as CIA Director, this looks like another old-school political trade-off and potential catastrophe in the making.

Comparisons I've seen with the vigor of Everett Koop are ludicrous. Koop was an outspoken advocate, not a media shill.

What's next, Oprah for UN Ambassador? The job requires more than camera smarts.

As confidence in Obama's credibility erodes we can forgo the puff-piece platitudes and despair to say - We'll see won't we?

We'll also keep score.

You people are hilarious. The guy is not even in office yet and he is already hearing that "confidence erodes." Obama is looking at the office. Gupta is a household name and the Surgeon General is a very public office. There is no question that putting a good face at the front of the office can help bring important public health matters to light.

I think that calling Gupta a political choice is sort of ridiculous. I also think this knee-jerk reaction to the cabinet posts is funny. Why not give these people a chance to do the job and then decide whether or not they are good or bad. Obviously, they have some qualifications. It's not like he is putting his family doctor at the post.

This is the idiot that got into a bun fight with Michael Moore live on CNN. He's not very pro-universal healthcare, which isn't a good sign, and said some REALLY dumb shit when discussing Moore's film Sicko.

Gupta is a tool for the capitalist for-profit healthcare system. Being a prominent member of the corporate media does not add to his credibility, it subtracts from it. It looks like Obama is going for superficiality here instead of substance. Obama was a better choice than McCain but based on all the picks he's making he is more concerned with political positioning than doing the best job he can do. I am losing confidence in him already. We should have voted for Nader.