BallotVox

Why Obama Tapped Sanjay Gupta

Celebrity and transition-team gossip overlapped this week. Obama, it appears, offered the Surgeon General post to media-savvy neurosurgeon Sanjay Gupta. There seems to be some dissent within the public-health community over this pick, and some commentators (like Paul Krugman) are disappointed. But if in fact it’s true that Obama wants a Surgeon General with the popular eminence needed to “drive a public message,” Gupta may be a smart choice. Or so these photos suggest.

Amit Gupta — no apparent relation — lives in San Francisco, where he’s a webby entrepreneur. (If you’re a photo addict, check out his Photojojo.) Amit took this shot in NYC. He titled it “I don’t often get to see my name (or even part of it) up on a billboard, so I had to take a pic.” The other relevant point is this: Our likely Surgeon General was on a huge billboard. He was a contender for Sexiest Man. People know who he is.

[Amit Gupta / Flickr]

Jennifer is an engineer in DC who got married last summer in her home state of Georgia. On the day after her wedding, she and her family wandered around Atlanta. At the CNN Center, her sister posed with (and like) “Sanjay.”

[absentmindedprof / Flickr]

Another amusing Gupta-related find on Flickr: Sanjay as Star Trek star.