Comments on: Sanjay for Surgeon General

By: nolanimrod

nolanimrod — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 11:43:29 +0000

Paul Krugman and John Conyers don’t like the guy. As they say, the enemy of narcissistic goombahs is my friend.

By: Ray

Ray — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:09:34 +0000

Another job lost to the Indians.

By: Brian Swisher

Brian Swisher — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:50:01 +0000

No, Daniel, Gupta was the electronics whiz, played by magician Ricky Jay. You’re thinking of Dr. Kaufman, played by Vincent Schiavelli…

This Gupta does admittedly look better than Ricky Jay, tho…

By: Daniel in Brookline

Daniel in Brookline — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:07:48 +0000

Dr. Gupta… wasn’t he the marksman / torture guy in “Tomorrow Never Dies”?

If so, he looks a lot better now than he did then…

By: Baklava

Baklava — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:38:51 +0000

Yum

By: Beverly

Beverly — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 05:53:03 +0000

Tellingly, in our Manhattan office we thought we overheard our Obama-worshipping colleagues gushing that Bam-Bam had picked DEEPAK CHOPRA to be the Surgeon General. We three contrarians were gagging with disbelief — and hugely relieved to hear that Bam-Bam had actually chosen a surgeon for the post.

And he’s hot as a pistol, if that photo is any guide. At least we’ll have eye-candy for four years.

By: Judicious Asininity

Judicious Asininity — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:11:25 +0000

[...] Neo-Neocon thinks Sanjay Gupta is a good pick for Surgeon General. She is impressed by the fact that he:showed moral courage when he performed emergency surgery on several Iraqis and US Marines while he was embedded in 2003 as a medical correspondent there.She adds:And he tangled with the abominable Michael Moore, as well.The fact that Paul Krugman comes out swinging in Moore’s defense confirms that Gupta is a good pick. Neo-Neocon is less happy with the choice of Panetta as director the CIA:To say Panetta is inexperienced in intelligence would be an understatement. He is profoundly inexperienced, even more so than other previous CIA chiefs who came from a basically non-intelligence background. His main qualification appears to be that he was President Clinton�s chief of staff, and yet nevertheless supported Obama in his campaign against Hillary.True. But the CIA has been a rogue operation for a generation and utterly useless in its primary mission. The CIA declared war on Bush and caused his administration no end of trouble. Plame and Wilson were the most obvious examples of CIA shenanigans. I think one of New-Neocon’s commenters got it right:Break it all down and take a hard look at what has become of the CIA. I think the Church Hearings of the Seventies killed it, and the 1978 FISA made sure that the CIA was managed by House and Senate committee people. The essence of intel gathering is a. ability to improvise b. stealth means everything If you have to divulge all black ops and get permission for them, too many eyes see what is happening. People on the Hill, staffers, and people in the State Department have thick dossiers of incidents where they talked and leaked. Most of the time, they do it to settle scores and scuttle policy. The CIA is no longer an effective organization. It is a huge waste of the taxpayer�s dollars. It could not serve the nation well to save its own life. I would argue that the best outcome would be to break it apart and put the better parts under Defense and State departments. What the Agency did to President Bush for the past eight years inclines me to be very uncharitable in my feelings about the CIA. Wouldn�t bother me if someone did the sensible thing and shot it in the head. Panetta is not going to make any difference with respect to the condition of the CIA and its inability to excel at HUMINT. It does not even have agents and station chiefs in many countries. The only thing Panetta is hired to do is to make sure the CIA does not do to President Obama what it did to President Bush.That makes sense. Posted by: Pat on Jan 04, 09 | 10:38 pm | [0] comments [0] Views | Permalink | [0] TrackBack | Go to Main Page Random Posts Poliblog and Judicious Asininity Get Appointed Death of Political Correctness If Bolton fails to be confirmed var site=”sm6blogger” Judicious Asininity >>www.asininity.com 2004PHP [...]

By: Y-not

Y-not — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:55:21 +0000

Hey, maybe I’m just too serious, but it looks like the past couple of Surgeon Generals have had MPHs and also have had expertise in bioterrorism. I realize that the world will instantly love us when Obama takes office, but shouldn’t we still be prepared against acts of domestic bioterrorism?

The Surgeon General is more than a spokesperson, s/he is also charged with articulating “scientifically based health policy analysis and advice to the President and the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) on the full range of critical public health, medical, and health system issues facing the Nation.” Features reporting and commentary on TV does not really prepare someone for that sort of advisory role, in my opinion, particularly when one’s medical specialty has little to do with major public health issues. In addition, the Surgeon General has administrative responsibilities on a scale that Dr. Gupta completely lacks.

Is he a better choice than Panetta or Richardson? Maybe. But given the health challenges we’re facing as a country, I really think Obama should have focussed his selection criteria on substance over style. It’s possible that Dr. Julie Gerberding (the current CDC director) was asked and declined, but I’m surprised Obama was not able to find someone with better qualifications, particularly given Michelle’s professional connections.

By: dane

dane — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:58:20 +0000

I actually have no problem with him for this particular position. It does not carry much in the way of decision making power and I think he will follow his core beliefs and say what he feels. I have no problem with anyone on either side of the aisle who does that. All in all I like the guy.

By: newton

newton — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:14:08 +0000

It’s to be expected: a pop-culture kind of appointment.

Quite appropriate for the “American Idol” Presidency…