Rumsfeld On "Late Show with Stephen Colbert"

[This is a form of a comment first provided here, see also, Shag's thoughts. As to the original subject matter covered there, the Ted Cruz as natural born citizen issue is again debate here, I again not finding Mark Field -- who on the whole is a great progressive type with a deep knowledge of history and law -- convincing. A tell is him being a guest host for a clear weak link on that blog.]

Stephen Colbert, I think, did a good job -- he has repeatedly have had serious guests on and used a combination of his niceness, sense of humor and serious questioning to make it worthwhile television. This includes scientists, politicians, someone from Black Lives Matters and others.  Don't know if this will be as popular as his competition, but hopefully enough will watch to allow him to continue.  Seems there should be niche for it.

In the end, the sit-down with Rumsfeld was yet another in-depth interview that he could never have pulled off as his old Colbert Report character. It took straightforward, genuine persistence, but the real Stephen Colbert got the job done.

Given the nature of his audience, who booed Ted Cruz when he was on, I wonder if they were put on notice beforehand to be nice. The fact Rumsfeld came on to promote an app -- if one that is being used to support military vets (no comment there), a cause Stephen Colbert has supported in the past -- just left me speechless on some level.  Anyway, some don't want Colbert to have guys like him or Trump on, to give them legitimacy, but asked serious questions and reached an audience that NPR or Charlie Rose etc. would not get.  A highlight is Rumsfeld's comment: “If it were a fact, it wouldn’t be called intelligence,” and Colbert clearly making an effort to be fair probably helped.

It seemed to cut into his next guest's time, some basketball star with his own brand of eyewear, but that is okay.  Also, I think Colbert's pre-interview segment was great last night too on Cruz etc. And, the inability of Carlson Palmer to do what QBs have to do -- throw balls to the right team. Well, I needed a laugh at least and he helped get it, mixed with some serious stuff by a nice, funny talented host. Good luck, SC.