Jon Stewart crudely explains why Jeb Bush shouldn't embrace brother's Iraq legacy

Jon Stewart can&#039;t believe Jeb Bush is running on his brother&#039;s foreign policy

(Image credit: The Daily Show)

published 13 May 2015

On Tuesday's Daily Show, Jon Stewart checked in with the 2016 presidential race, poking fun at various things the candidates said over the weekend — Mike Huckabee on hawking diet pills, Ben Carson on his various outrageous analogies, Ted Cruz's... well, interviewer Mark Halperin's terrible, patronizing questions for Cruz. Then he turned to the frontrunners, each tied closely to a previous occupant of the Oval Office.

In many ways, Hillary Clinton appears to be running against her husband's legacy. "Trouble in paradise, if you know what I mean," Stewart said, immediately clarifying: "By paradise, I mean a politically symbiotic partnership based on mutual ambition for global domination."

Jeb Bush, not so much. Stewart shook his head in disbelief at Bush's recent apparent embrace of George W. Bush's foreign policy baggage. "I think that at this point, most of America agrees that when it comes to foreign policy, George W. Bush is an excellent painter," he said, politely, before turning to Jeb's statement that he would still have invaded Iraq in 2003. "When an Iraq War question starts with 'Knowing what we know now,'" Stewart sighed, "'Hell yes, I'd still do it' is not an acceptable response." Short term, hugging W.'s Iraq legacy "might be appealing to a small fringe of dead-enders," he added, finishing the thought with a crude analogy, then ending with a weird aside about President Warren G. Harding and beastiality. So. Watch below. —Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.