Barack Obama wants to appoint tee-vee doctor Sanjay Gupta of CNN as our new Surgeon General. What the hell is this, really?

"Gupta has told administration officials that he wants the job, and the final vetting process is under way. He has asked for a few days to figure out the financial and logistical details of moving his family from Atlanta to Washington but is expected to accept the offer...

The offer followed a two-hour Chicago meeting in November with Obama, who said that Gupta could be the highest-profile surgeon general in history and would have an expanded role in providing health policy advice, the sources said."

More info TK, but obviously Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman is the big loser here. [WP]

MORE ON SANJAY!: First keep in mind that there's a chance he might not take the gig, because it would be a huge pay cut for him. Now put that out of your mind immediately and gaze upon these fun facts about our probably new Surgeon General!

—Before he was a talking head, he was a real doctor! A neurosurgeon. One time he went to report from Iraq and did emergency surgery to help save a soldier's life!

—He's a New York Times bestselling author!

—And he won an Emmy award!

—And "He has recently had articles published in the Journal of Neurosurgery and Neurosurgical Focus on percutaneous pedicle screw placement."!

—He was one of People's Sexiest Men Alive in 2003.

And the single most famous moment of his career? Getting into a feud with Michael Moore over the tubby filmmaker's movie Sicko, which, let's face it, did have a fair amount of bullshit propaganda in it:

Does any of this qualify him to be Surgeon General of the US? Obama says yes!