Condoleezza Rice and Jay Leno

Last Thursday, Barack Obama was a guest on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Tuesday, I suppose in an effort to be somewhat fair and balanced, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined Leno for two segments.

Some of the discussion topics were very light -- her childhood, playing piano, college. Some were more serious -- serving in the Bush administration, judging the Obama administration.

Here are a few minutes of video excerpts from NBC.



Transcript excerpts

JAY LENO: Do you miss the job, the excitement, the hubbub and all that?

CONDOLEEZZA RICE: No. I don't.

LENO: Really? No?

RICE: No, I really don't. I am so happy to get up in the morning, read the newspaper, and not think I have to do anything about what's in it.

LENO: Really?

RICE: Yeah, it's really great. It really is. It was an honor to serve. I love this country. There is nothing like being able to do this. And I know that people talk about America, and America's not this, and America's not that. But I'll tell you something, without America in the world, the most powerful country but also the most compassionate country, the freest country, the world would be a much, much worse place. And so I was grateful to be a part of that.

LENO: Let me ask you about your boss. President Bush, at least at this point in history, not coming off very well, uh, not particularly popular. Does that hurt you? Do you feel...?

RICE: Yeah, it does, because I wish people could have seen what he was like. You know, I saw many a cabinet secretary go in and have the President be the best questioner in the room. This was a president who was compassionate. He knew the issues. He cared about important things like immigration and education and AIDS relief. And 9/11 perhaps obscured a lot of what happened, but I'm also a firm believer that history has a long arc, and what is popular today and today's headlines are rarely the same as history's judgment. So I think we'll let history judge. And I think he'll be judged well by history.

.........

LENO: What do you make of Dick Cheney saying...? I know President Bush says he wants to remain silent and give Barack his opportunity. Uh, Vice President Cheney out there saying that Obama has made the U.S. less safe. Uh, we shouldn't be closing Guantanamo Bay, uh, the interrogation methods... What is your opinion?

RICE: Look, these are difficult questions and difficult issues. My view is we got to do it our way. We did our best. We did some things well, some things not so well. Now, they get their chance. And I agree with the president. We owe them our loyalty and our silence while they do it, because I know what it's like to have people chirping at you when they perhaps don't know what's going on inside. These are quality people. I know them. They love the country. And they won't make the same decision perhaps that we did. But I believe they'll do what they think is best for the country. And I'll give my advice privately, and keep it to myself.

It must have been so tough for Leno to not bash Bush when Rice was praising him. Somehow, Leno managed to control himself.

By the way, Leno's new feature "What's George Bush Doing Today?" was not included in the monologue on Tuesday. I suppose that disrespectful crap was omitted because of Rice's appearance.

Some interesting segments of the interview aren't included among the highlights on this video.

Rice said her favorite band is Led Zeppelin. She had her wild and crazy times in college.

Rice talked more about 9/11 and people jumping to their deaths from the World Trade Center, speaking of the impact that had on the decisions that were made by the Bush administration.

When she talked about the people jumping, those images came back to me so vividly. My stomach knotted and I felt sick.

Leno brought up Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama. Rice expressed her respect for Powell and what he did. She would not reveal the candidate she voted for in the 2008 presidential election, citing that there's a reason we have a secret ballot.

Rice did say that she knew Barack Obama. She spoke glowingly of him, and talked about her pride in an African-American being elected president of the United States.

I don't remember seeing Rice so relaxed. She seemed like a great weight had been lifted from her. She really seemed happy.
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UPDATE: NBC has posted more video.

Condoleezza Rice - Part 1

Condoleezza Rice - Part 2

More transcript excerpts

LENO: What's your favorite band of all time?

RICE: Led Zeppelin.

.........

LENO: Do you rock out with the iPod, do the whole thing?

RICE: Well, mostly when I get on the elliptical and exercise, then I can really be with Led Zeppelin.

LENO: Wow.

.........

LENO: Did we squander that opportunity at 9/11? It seemed like we had the whole world on our side. Everybody was... not feeling sorry, but certainly everybody was compassionate for America. And then it seems like in the last five years, it seems like there's so much hostility towards us.

RICE: Well, we had to do some really hard things. It's not easy to fight terrorism. I'll tell you something, for those of us who were there on September 11th, to watch Americans jump out of 80 story windows as the Twin Towers went down, every day after was September 12th. And because of that, you do think of the world differently. And you're determined not to let that happen again and that means that you do some unpopular things. But I'll tell you something, as you go around the world, you realize America still has an enormous wellspring of good favor. I don't know that many people who are trying to immigrate to China. And I know that a lot of people want to send their kids to school here. America is well-regarded around the world, even if sometimes our policies or a certain administration is not. And I understand that, but being an American and representing this great country was one of the joys of my life.

.........

LENO: Now your predecessor, Colin Powell, he came out and endorsed Barack Obama.

RICE: Yes. Right.

LENO: Any opinion on that? What do you make of that?

RICE: Colin's a good friend and I think he felt strongly that Barack Obama was the right person for the presidency at this time, and I'm glad he did what he thought best.

LENO: Did you vote for Barack Obama?

RICE: I've said many times, you know, that's why they have a secret ballot, Jay. But I know the president, and I admire him. He was on Senate Foreign Relations, which was the committee that oversaw the State Department. And so I saw him quite a lot. He's smart. He will do a good job. And I think his election was special.