Gupta: A Spectacularly Good Choice?

The idea that a television personality makes a lousy public official was pretty much a dead horse by the time Ronald Reagan and then Fred Thompson had left Washington, and while I am tiptoeing around the question of the suitability of Al Franken, I must say that CNN talking head Sanjay Gupta would seem to have what it takes to be a spectacularly good Surgeon General.

Demographic plusses aside, the guy is a medical doctor who is terrific at explaining complex medical and policy issues at a time when the considerable damage that the Bush administration did in these areas with its Christianist voodoo needs to be repaired.

My one reservation, which is slight at this late date and has been noted by other pundits, is that Gupta claimed that Michael Moore had "fudged his facts" in the movie Sicko, one of the most important documentaries ever made and a painfully accurate look at America's dysfunctional health care and health insurance systems. He was defending the status quo and that just won't play in Oh Nine.

It was a pediatrician, C. Everett "I Wear One Myself!" Koop, who broke the old Surgeon General mold; that is, some guy who paraded around in a dress uniform reminiscent of what Ralph and Ed wore to Raccoon Lodge meetings on "The Honeymooners" and seldom said anything of consequence. Koop got an education from the experience and was able to give Americans one as well.