clipped from drudgereport.com

When LIFE asked comic Chris Rock if America is ready for an African American president, Rock tells LIFE: “It’s ready for a retarded president, why wouldn’t it be ready for an African American president?”

Of the current presidential contenders, Rock says, “I like Al Gore, actually. (A) He’s more qualified than everyone that’s running on the Democratic side. (B) If he won or didn’t win, he has an agenda to help people and make this a better world...” Rock tells LIFE: “Maybe Barack will win, but I probably won’t see a black president. There’s real equality when you don’t notice [race], you don’t even talk about it. I probably won’t live to see that.”

The 42-year-old Brooklyn-raised comic’s latest project, I Think I Love My Wife, which he cowrote, directed, and stars in, examines a marriage that’s in a slump. Rock talks to LIFE about rumors concerning his own 10-year marriage to Malaak Compton-Rock, fatherhood and happiness in the current issue of LIFE, in newspapers Friday.