A few months ago, I wrote a story for the magazine on the idea, heard with some frequency at the time, that Barack Obama is “the Tiger Woods of politics.” I found that ridiculous. Tiger Woods has won 14 major championships, and if he retired today he would be the second-best player in history. Obama? Not quite.
So today comes a post at Time’s Swampland blog in which Ana Marie Cox asks Reggie Love, the former Duke University basketball and football player who is constantly at Obama’s side, this question: If Team Obama were a basketball team, which team would it be? Cox suggested the golden-era Chicago Bulls as one possibility. Love’s answer:
I don’t think that we’re the golden era Bulls because Michael was so establish[ed] by the time he got to his third and fourth ring. I would say that the senator has a work ethic similar to Michael Jordan, but I don’t know that I would say that he would be — I don’t think he’s the equivalent in the political world of Michael Jordan.
Politics is full of hyperbole. But there are some places even the most committed partisans can’t go.