Sun, 01/11/2009 - 10:32am — lambert
Daschle is planning a major grassroots push to build public support for his plan outside Washington, possibly with spokesman-in-chief Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN at the helm as surgeon general.
If so, that would explain why the OFB
were so vehement in their insistence that a focus on Gupta was an irrelevant side issue, wouldn't it?
I mean, people might think twice about how serious Obama really is on health care, if they knew that Daschle's main spokesperson credulously propagated a Raelian human cloning hoax, gave bad medical advice to millions on mad cow disease, and took a position on marijuana greatly at odds with that of Obama's own supporters.
Not to mention Gupta's lies on single payer. But perhaps that was his job qualification?
»
- lambert's blog
- Login or register to post comments
- 1+[encrypted]+#b94+
Printer-friendly version
Front page
Comments
The OFB discredits the JOB, not the man, when BO screws up.
When it looked like the SG was going to be, uh, SG, notice how the Surgeon General's job suddenly became a joke? "He just goes around telling people not to smoke". "He's a figurehead." "He doesn't doooooo anything." Predictably, even The Daily Show (they disappoint me week after week - why do I keep trying?) joined in. (Also predictably, the Colbert Report did a much better skewering - of the man, and not the job.)
Remember when suddenly the guy selected to shoot a load of Jesus all over us at the Inauguration was a non-starter, when it was obvious it was going to be Rick Warren? "NOBODY remembers what happens at the inauguration!"
Well, both the Surgeon General's office and the Inauguration are what you make of them. I remember Maya Angelou, Dr. Jocelyn Elders, and I most definitely, DEFINITELY remember SG C. Everett Koop.
The thing to remember about Gupta's history whenever you evaluate something new is what he does when faced with a dilemma of delivering accurate health information, versus assigned corporate boilerplate. The most (initially) shocking thing about the "Sicko" affair - and I saw this as it unfolded in real time - was that Gupta was reading boilerplate directly contradicted by what Moore's movie clip was showing, on the screen - in print, and was unrolling as he yakked.