Comedian Chris Rock thinks President Barack Obama turned out more like a Shaquille O'Neal than the Michael Jordan that the nation expected.
"Everybody wanted Michael Jordan, right? We got Shaq. That’s not a disappointment. You know what I mean? We got Charles Barkley. It’s still a Hall of Fame career," Rock
told New York magazine in an interview published Sunday.
Rock's analogy is shaky at best, as Obama will likely finish his presidency with one of the lowest approval ratings of any outgoing president. The broad strokes of his presidency – the failed stimulus, the undoing of progress in Iraq, and the ongoing disaster of Obamacare – doesn't put him in league with either the highest rated or most accomplished presidents. He's no FDR or Reagan, that’s for sure.
Even by Rock's own standard, which he laid out in the same breath as the Shaq/Jordan analogy, Obama is nowhere near Hall of Fame status.
"The president should be graded on jobs and peace, and the other stuff is debatable. Do more people have jobs, and is there more peace?' asked Rock. "I guess there’s a little more peace. Not as much peace as we’d like, but I mean, that’s kind of the gig. I don’t recall anybody leaving on an up. It’s just that kind of job."
Peace is on the wane. The U.S. is looking at active threats from resurgent terrorist groups – which Obama likened to "jayvee" teams in Lakers jerseys – and diplomatic relations with traditional allies like Turkey and Israel are in shambles. That's not even to mention ever-worsening threats from Russia and Iran.
Regarding jobs, 2014 has been a record-breaking year for the number of adults not participating in the labor force. 92.2 million Americans over 16 didn't work in August, a 36-year low according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Obama's jobs grade is not even a passing C-.
Rock's other brilliant advice for Obama:
"When Obama first got elected, he should have let it all just drop," he said. "Just let the country flatline. Let the auto industry die. Don’t bail anybody out. In sports, that’s what any new GM does. They make sure that the catastrophe is on the old management and then they clean up. They don’t try to save old management’s mistakes."
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