Michael Moore was right (again). Gupta withdraws on the day of Obama's Health Care Forum.

[Faygo Kid]

Sanjay Gupta withdrew his name from consideration for Surgeon General on the VERY DAY that President Obama held his national Health Care Forum.

Coincidence? Give me a break.

Michael Moore and Paul Krugman had this guy pegged from the get-go: A tool of the Repukes and the health care "industry." The Administration has to learn from this.

Gupta was a mistake. He will take his 30 pieces of silver and keep smilin'. For the rest of us, bookmark http://www.michaelmoore.com which gets it.

Congrats, Sanjay. You are laughing all the way to the bank. And so are your handlers.

[Historic NY]

1. Okay then Dr. Dean should be given the position. He is a Democrat!!!!!!!

[Faygo Kid]

5. Absolutely no disagreement there. Great choice.

Don't know why Dr. Dean is dissed, but if the crapola Gupta could be considered, a fine man like Dean should certainly rise to the top.

President Obama: Throw a damned bone to your base this time. Howard Dean, please.

[burythehatchet]

6. Dr Dean has a much larger role to play. He is not done.

[Occam Bandage]

8. Why?

It seems everyone here equates Dean with single-payer health care, which I suppose is reasonable. Wouldn't you then want him to do something related to health care, instead of something related to public health?

[msongs]

13. not sure Dean would be a bootlicker for the adminstration nt

[Occam Bandage]

15. What does "not being a bootlicker" have to do with surgeon general?

[proud patriot]

20. Agreed Dean

[Historic NY]

23. Why should Dean be the Choice? A country Dr. with a National Audience..

& he is perfect because he has the "common man" perspective. He is the kinda of Dr I would want taking care of me...its the TRUST thing.

[graywarrior]

2. Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

[Nevernose]

3. Take out the comma on your link

While grammatically correct, it makes it difficult for lazy people like me to click on the link.

And you (and Mike) are right on. That was my first thought when he resigned. Anti-medicinal marijuana, anti-UHC -- I know my mom thinks he's sexy, but he's just another sell-out.

[Faygo Kid]

10. Thanks! Done, and I have trouble with all those tubes and wires.

That make up the Internet.

[Occam Bandage]

4. If he were an Insidious Evil Tool of the Boogeyman Of The Week Club,

wouldn't he have wanted to stay on so he could muck about in Obama's administration, instead of quietly withdrawing during a time in which his withdrawal was sure to be overshadowed by far bigger news about health care?

[Faygo Kid]

11. Nope. He was never into much else than $$$$. He was a tool.

Served his purpose, withdrew on a day calculated to embarrass the president, and moves on.

Look for him to accept big bucks over at Faux News very soon.

[Occam Bandage]

14. So let me get this straight.

Someone, most likely "Big Pharma," has paid him to accept the job of Surgeon General. Obama offered this job to Gupta because he is stupid or something, or because he's bought off too, I don't know. Gupta's task in this was to accept the nomination, say nothing, and then withdraw quietly on a day when everyone is paying attention to the stock market and to Obama's health care summit. Moreover, Gupta is paid to not say anything that would embarrass the President, but rather to say he'd like to concentrate on his show, giving the media absolutely nothing interesting to report on. Then he will leave his high-paying job at CNN and get one on Fox.

That's an interesting conspiracy theory. Interesting in that it requires everyone, from Obama to Gupta to Big Pharma, to be as dumb as a bag of hair.

[Faygo Kid]

16. Glad you're a fan of his.

Please get ALL of your medical analysis from him from now on.

If you think that his withdrawal on this day was a coincidence, then there is a bag of hair with your name on it.

We'll see about the Fox thing, won't we?

[Occam Bandage]

18. Why is it that so many people seem to think

you have to either unquestioningly accept every moronic conspiracy theory about a person, or you have to unquestioningly admire that same person? That says an awful lot about the way you approach politics, and what it says ain't exactly a compliment.

[alarimer]

31. I bet he has some kind of tax problem.

Or he realized he would look stupid in that uniform.

[rurallib]

7. Was he ever formally proposed?

And the chances of Dr. Dean getting anything above janitor in this admin seems non-existent. Hope I can eat those words soon.

[Kajsa]

9. Great news,Faygo Kid!

Gupta would have been a disaster!

Yes, Dean would be perfect for the job.

He deserves it, too!

:)

[The_Casual_Observer]

12. Moore had that guy down on his knees, he was humilated.

Why he was even considered is beyond me.

[Ernesto]

17. Gupta..... Corporate whore

Why would this pretty boy risk the potential of making future $ millions just by doing the right thing?

Draft Dean NOW!

[deaniac21]

19. Moore is the smartest person in the world.

[Ernesto]

21. That is why he is demonized by the facists!

[Luminous Animal]

22. And plenty of people here on DU...

fall for the fascist's demonization.

[Bluebear]

24. This will disappoint so many here who thought the Gupta pick was "brilliant"

...and that Michael Moore had jumped the shark, etc.

[RagAss]

25. Was Michael Moore ever wrong????

Crickets !

[Selatius]

26. I didn't necessarily believe Gupta was a whore for health insurance corporations

Gupta believed the primary thrust of Moore's film was right. US health care, in his view, was in an appalling condition, but they argued in their famous exchange over which set of facts to use.

If it is appropriate to say that Michael Moore "fucking hates" the health insurance industry, then Gupta, at least in my view, would only just "dislike" the health insurance industry.

[Historic NY]

27. really then why did he screw us & the POTUS.

remember this job is to advocate for the patient.. & the patient being US.

[Occam Bandage]

28. If you think he would be bad at the job,

then how is his decision to not do the job tantamount to "screwing us?"

[Historic NY]

32. then why did he string the along the POTUS until now?

Why not refuse in January. What hidden agenda did he have?

[Selatius]

29. CNN and its parent company Time Warner were writing bigger paychecks than Obama?

:shrug:

Honestly, I don't know.

Even if that were true, it would only reinforce what I just said. If Michael Moore vehemently opposes the notion of private health insurance, then he wouldn't pass up such an opportunity if Obama chose him, but if Gupta only just passingly dislikes the health insurance industry, then it would make sense he would be less willing to take such a post, especially if it meant taking a pay-cut.

Then again, if you want somebody being Health and Human Services Secretary, you would want somebody who puts other people first as a priority, not the size of the paycheck that comes with the role.

Dean would've been better, IMHO, but Obama doesn't appear to want to listen to the Progressive Caucus or anybody on the left.

[Luminous Animal]

33. Actually, you are whitewashing the chain of events.

As Krugman states, "“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.”

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/the-trouble-with-sanjay-gupta/

http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/news/article.php?id=10017

http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/news/article.php?id=10026

[opihimoimoi]

30. YES from the Opi

[The Backlash Cometh]

34. You know, I'm beginning to see a pattern.

Rabi blancos. Aristocrats. You find them everywhere in every race. People who think that reaching the top entitles them to certain perks. Scalia is the worst of them. Seeing Sanjay's photo, and his calculated move, I see he's one of them.

Obama, the only way to knock these people down a peg, is to destroy their shadow government networks. Give us a federal agency we can trust and we'll point them out to you.