Stewart Bashes George W. Bush Library as ‘Disasterpiece Theater’

The dedication of George W. Bush’s presidential library in Dallas on Thursday was the perfect excuse for Jon Stewart to have some good old nostalgic fun at the expense of the nation’s 43rd president, which he did on the latest episode of “The Daily Show.” In the opening segment, Stewart mocked the library for attempting to gloss over Bush’s actual legacy by displaying tens of thousands of artifacts from his presidency, such as a pair of cowboy boots.

“It’s basically the Hard Rock Cafe of catastrophic policy decisions,” he said.

Later in the program, Stewart spoke with correspondent Al Madrigal about the interactive, choose-your-own-adventure type exhibit at the library that puts visitors in Bush’s shoes and confronts them with the choices he had to make on issues including the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina and the financial meltdown. The feature is called Decision Points Theater, but Stewart’s name for it — Disasterpiece Theater — seems more appropriate. Stewart then turned to Madrigal, who was “on assignment” in Dallas, to describe his experience.

“Decision Points Theater: amazing,” Madrigal said. “I aced it by the way. Invade Iraq? Yes. Rescue New Orleans? No. Bail out Wall Street? Pass the checkbook.”

Stewart cut in, “Why, knowing what we know now, why did you choose ‘yes’ on invading Iraq?”

Madrigal responded, “Well, the choices were: (A) Leave a madman in power that will destroy civilization or (B) be a little bitch.” He then went on to note that if you make the wrong decision — e.g., you don’t react as Bush did when faced with the same choice — a video of the former president comes up letting users know they picked incorrectly.

Now if only that interactive feature worked the other way around when Bush was still in the White House.

— Posted by Tracy Bloom.