WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama's reported choice for surgeon general, CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, could bring a dose of star power to a job that hasn't had that much clout in decades.Obama's selection process for deciding on the new surgeon general was extremely rigorous:
Gupta doesn't just play a doctor on TV, he's a neurosurgeon who still scrubs in part-time in one of the nation's toughest hospitals when he's not on CNN assignments that have taken him from Hurricane Katrina to Iraq. . . .
People magazine named the then-single Gupta one of the sexiest men of 2003.
OBAMA: Okay, so what about Surgeon General?I mean, apart from the whole "I won't put lobbyists in my cabinet" thing, are we really at the point where a recurring five-minute segment on a morning news show is a valid route into government? What's next, Wolf Blitzer for Secretary of Defense? He does have all that experience in the situation room!
STAFF: [blank stares all round]
OBAMA: No suggestions?
STAFF: Ummmm....
OBAMA: Can anyone name a doctor?
STAFF: Doug Ross!
OBAMA: Wasn't that George Clooney's character from E.R.?
STAFF: Oh.
[long silence]
OBAMA: I'm waiting.
STAFF: Dr Strangelove! Dr Moreau! Dr Frankenstein!
OBAMA: What are you, a film student? Can anyone name an actual doctor?
STAFF: There's that guy on CNN who gets sponsored by the drug companies.
OBAMA: Sold! Okay, now, who do we have for the Hairdresser General?
(And yes, I realise that Gupta is not technically a lobbyist, but I think there might be just a few tiny conflicts of interest there, nevertheless.)
Am I justified in finding this really depressing/alarming? Or is it just gratuitous cynicism?
2 comments:
What's even worse is Obama's appointment of Panetta to the CIA... someone who has absolutely no intelligence experience. (pun definitely intended.) If Gupta does an ok job, I don't have a problem with him... At least it's not some crazy diet creator.
Q: Can you name any previous surgeon generals?
It's possible Gupta could raise the positions profile.
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