Apparently, Obama wants to name CNN’s talking-head neurosurgeon, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, as Surgeon General. Gupta is an accomplished surgeon, Emory University medical professor and award-winning journalist, who has covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the tsunami in Sri Lanka. He’s also not totally unpolitical, having served as a White House fellow in 1997 and as an advisor to Hillary Clinton.
But picking a television personality — and here I mean no disrespect, the guy is clearly a multi-tasking genius — leaves the door open for a just a tiny bit of mockery. Judge Judy for the Supreme Court? Rachel Ray for White House chef? Flava Flav to head the the DEA! And, hey, Law & Order was one of Fred Thompson’s top credentials in his presidential run.