Obama Wants Journalist Gupta for President-elect Barack Obama
If I remember correctly (and I might not) Gupta is against any kind of universal health care which is seriously going to upset many Obama supporters. Gupta did a fact check on Michael Moore’s “Sicko”(More Info) angering many leftists. Michael Moore took issue with Gupta’s facts and the two duked it out on Larry King. (See video below)
By Howard Kurtz
President-elect Barack Obama has offered the job of surgeon general to Dr. 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.
[snip]
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.
Here is the video of a confrontation between Moore and Gupta on Larry King:
January 7th, 2009 at 8:52 am
I was on a long range planning committee for a scholl district. Our High School did not meet ADA (handicap accessability) requirements. Also it was found that the tile on the floor in the “new” addition had asbestos. The oldest part of the building was built in 1919. Over all we had 9 levels and 7 boilers. Ad to that extreme crowding.
Previous committees could not get a referendum to pass to even address the required improvements.
My committee included those who were most vocal against any improvements or building a new building. We got a single item referendum passed in Nov. (nothing else on the ballot) to build a new High school.
We did this by addressing all objections and providing information from all areas including community impact of closing the schools (tax rates for neighboring school districts would be higher than ours than if we built), building design to include middle school which kept the age groups separated yet sharing gyms, Office support, library and computer centers.
My point is that we utilized the con’s to come up with excellent results. You need the nay sayers for comprehensive results.
January 7th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Hey Sage…will not be online too much today. I goofed off yesterday, lol! I have to gear up in packing.
January 7th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
From America blog:
Krugman on the day Sanjay Gupta mugged Michael Moore
John Aravosis (DC) · 1/07/2009 08:07:00 AM ET
Krugman points out that CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the man Obama is considering for Surgeon General, conducted an on-the-air mugging of Michael Moore that turned out to be absolutely false.
From Krugman:
I don’t have a problem with Gupta’s qualifications. But I do remember his mugging of Michael Moore over Sicko. You don’t have to like Moore or his film; but Gupta specifically claimed that Moore “fudged his facts”, when the truth was that on every one of the allegedly fudged facts, Moore was actually right and CNN was wrong.
What bothered me about the incident was that it was what Digby would call Village behavior: Moore is an outsider, he’s uncouth, so he gets smeared as unreliable even though he actually got it right. It’s sort of a minor-league version of the way people who pointed out in real time that Bush was misleading us into war are to this day considered less “serious” than people who waited until it was fashionable to reach that conclusion. And appointing Gupta now, although it’s a small thing, is just another example of the lack of accountability that always seems to be the rule when you get things wrong in a socially acceptable way.
http://www.americablog.com/2009/01/krugman-on-day-sanjay-gupta-mugged.html
January 10th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
It would have been fitting for you to have used quotation marks on either side of the word journalist.
I don’t know why, but I couldn’t help thinking of the words to Dire Straits’, “Money for Nothing” when I heard about this appointment.
There’s ole Sanjay humming,
“Now that aint workin that’s the way you do it
You play the guitar on the mtv
That aint workin thats the way you do it
Money for nothin and your chicks for free
Money for nothin and chicks for free”