Washington, Jan. 10: US President-elect Barack Obama may have picked Dr. sanjay Gupta as his surgeon general, but the world at large, is still pretty much clueless about his credentials, despite the 39-year-old nureosurgeon publishing articles in medical journals, appearing for CNN on TV, offering medical advice through his columns for Time magazine and being the author of the 2007 best-seller on healthy living, "Chasing Life."

According to Politico, those who know and have worked with Gupta, say he is predisposed to avoiding controversy thanks partly to his embrace of journalistic objectivity in his public life, but also because he is dispassionate and non-ideological by nature.

"He's not deeply partisan; he's much more interested in real-world practical solutions," said former Democratic Representative Brad Carson of Oklahoma, a longtime friend.

Gupta contributed 4,000 dollars to Carson in 2003 during his unsuccessful campaign for U. S. Senate, but Carson said the contribution was about friendship, not politics.

Gupta also "worked quite closely with" former US President Bill Clinton on health care and other issues, and studied the failure of the administration's failed health care reform effort.

Presumably, things would not have progressed as far as they have since Gupta met November 25 in Chicago with Obama if the president-elect and his team didn't feel comfortable that Gupta was in tune with their views. (ANI)