Interesting. On the day of President Obama's big health care forum, Dr. Sanjay Gupta has removed his name from consideration as Surgeon General. Speaking like a seasoned politician, Gupta said:

"This is more about my family and my surgical career," Gupta told CNN's "Larry King Live."

Of course, not everyone is sad about his withdrawal, as Gupta had his critics from the start. A lot of progressives were still upset at Gupta for misrepresenting the facts in director Michael Moore's film, Sicko. More after the flip:

According to Paul Krugman in the NY Times:

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.

Congressman John Conyers of Michigan even mounted a little campaign against him, urging his fellow members of the House to come against his nomination. Any time anyone says that they want to spend more time with their family, I tend to get suspicious. I wonder if there was something more to the withdrawal:

Numerous questions have been raised, however, about Dr. Gupta's ties to pharmaceutical companies and his tendency to promote vaccines and pharmaceuticals while dismissing safety concerns about those drugs.

I'm not sure about the allegations, but let's hope President Obama nominates someone that progressives and health care advocates can rally around.