Wednesday night, during The Colbert Report’s salute to our troops returning from Iraq, Stephen Colbert asked his guest, Vice President Joe Biden, to comment on the previous administration. Biden looked into the camera and gave a sincere thanks to George W. Bush for consistently honoring our armed forces. Last night on her show, Rachel Maddow called the moment “inexplicable,” “whitewash,” and “weird.”
Maddow wasn’t just referring to the Biden comments but also to sections of President Obama’s Iraw War speech (which she’s already gone on record about her displeasure with) and that’s fine. However, I’m going to have to completely disagree with her on Biden’s Report interview. No matter what he felt, had Biden gone off and criticized Bush at that moment, it would have been entirely inappropriate.
Last night’s Colbert Report was basically a homefront USO show, and a great one at that. It was entirely about respecting, honoring, and entertaining the troops (whom Colbert invited to fill the audience and drink beer, eat hot dogs, and feel nice tracts of American green grass). Despite a few jokes about the distinction between combat and non-combat forces and the beginnings of the war, there were no politics involved. It was just a solid half hour of fun.
Biden understood that. Colbert and his staff understood that. It’s a shame Maddow apparently couldn’t.
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