Surgeon General U S

Like most everyone in this small, scruffy city of boat builders and fishermen, Sammy Duffy tends to rave about surgeon general nominee Regina Benjamin and all that she has done for the hard-working people here who labor without the safety net of health insurance.

CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta withdrew Thursday from consideration to be the next surgeon general, with the network and Obama administration officials attributing his decision to professional and family reasons amid a campaign by some liberal interest groups to block his selection. CNN reported that Gupta, a neurosurgeon, decided to withdraw so that he could continue to practice medicine, work as a journalist and spend more time with his family.

President-elect Barack Obama has asked Dr. Sanjay Gupta to be the next U.S. surgeon general, looking to a popular television personality to help provide a public face for his healthcare agenda. Best known as a health and medicine correspondent for CNN and CBS, Gupta, 39, is a practicing neurosurgeon in Atlanta and a member of the faculty at the Emory University School of Medicine. The surgeon general oversees some 6,000 officers in the commissioned corps of the Public Health Service.