• The Washington Post, Wednesday, January 7, 2009 9:32 AM

President-elect Barack Obama has offered the job of surgeon general to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the neurosurgeon and correspondent for CNN and CBS. He is expected to accept the offer. Obama said that Gupta could be the highest-profile surgeon general in history and would have an expanded role in providing health policy advice.

The Michigan-born son of parents who were born in India, Gupta hosts "House Call" on CNN. His appointment would give the administration a skilled television spokesman.

Gupta was a White House fellow in the late 1990s, writing speeches and crafting policy for Hillary Clinton. During the 2003 Iraq invasion, Gupta was embedded as a journalist with a Navy unit called Devil Docs and, while covering its mission, he performed brain surgery five times.

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