Jon Stewart Obliterates the Right’s Comparisons of Obama to Bush

Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:02 pm

Stewart exposes the flaws in the right's self defeating argument

On The Daily Show last night host Jon Stewart deftly exposed the flaws in the conservative argument against Obama that everything he does is just like George W. Bush. Stewart said, “Remember that terrible thing that Bush did that we fought for eight years to convince you wasn’t bad, but actually good? Well now we use those very incidents as the low water mark for your guy…”

Here is the video from The Daily Show:

After playing various clips of right wing pundits comparing Kagan to Harriet Miers, Stewart pretended to look her up and defined her as, “Harriet Miers: Former Bush crony, Supreme Court nominated and quickly withdrawn, name now synonomous with intellectual heft and reckless nominating.” After playing a clip of Bay Buchanan saying the difference between Kagan and Miers is, “Ivy League.” Stewart drew the conclusion that, “So she’s exactly like Harriet Miers except for the dumb part? Just like the only difference between me and Michael Jordan is athletic ability.”

To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.

Stewart then pointed out how it is the Right that loves to compare Obama to Bush, “So Kagan is Obama’s Harriet Miers, his Bush like misstep, kinda sucks because he is still recovering from his last Bush like misstep.” After playing clips of the Right call in the oil spill Obama’s Katrina, Stewart said, “It’s crazy. It’s like no matter what happens during the Obama administration, there’s the perfect Bush f*ck up for the occasion…It’s like Bush has a set of greeting cards, oh you displayed a complete lack of self awareness during a time that would be seen as a test of your leadership, well there’s a Bush f*ck up for that.”

The Daily Show host talked about how self undermining this comparison is, “The crazy part is that it’s conservatives and Republicans that are in the biggest rush to make the comparisons. Remember that terrible thing that Bush did that we fought for eight years to convince you wasn’t bad, but actually good? Well now we use those very incidents as the low water mark for your guy, and they’re not just interested in comparing Obama’s new problems with Bush’s old problems, they’re also looking to bequeath all that Bush oversaw like some sort of cancerous heirloom. It’s like these guys treat this country like some sort of used car salesman….and the best part is they can’t even recognize their own tacit admission of the previous administration’s failure.”

The minute that Obama took office the Right started trying to smear him with the legacy of the president that they strongly supported for eight years. There is no greater self admission of failure than the Right’s argument that Obama is just like Bush. It is as if they are saying, “Look your guy is just as terrible as our guy was,” but on the basis of this argument they then have the nerve to ask the American people to return them to power. As usual, Stewart is pointing of the hypocrisy of a media that is more interested in narrative than logic.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association