What Happened: By Scott Mcclellan ~ Audiobook
Seattle Times, March 16, 2008
“The former press secretary of President Bush (No. 43 version) empties out his notebooks, and all of Washington will be holding its breath.” –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Product Description
In this refreshingly clear-eyed book, written with no agenda other than to record his experiences and insights for the benefit of history, McClellan provides a unique perspective on what happened and why it happened the way it did, including the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina, Washington’s bitter partisanship, and two hotly contested presidential campaigns.
Book Jacket WHAT HAPPENED
Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception
SCOTT MCCLELLAN
SUMMARY | EXCERPT | AUTHOR TOUR DATES
With unprecedented candor, one of George W. Bush’s closest aides takes readers behind the scenes of the Bush presidency, and what exactly happened to take it off course
Scott McClellan was one of a few Bush loyalists from Texas who became part of his inner circle of trusted advisers, and remained so during one of the most challenging and contentious periods of recent history. Drawn to Bush by his commitment to compassionate conservatism and strong bipartisan leadership, McClellan served the president for more than seven years, and witnessed day-to-day exactly how the presidency veered off course.
In this refreshingly clear-eyed book, written with no agenda other than to record his experiences and insights for the benefit of history, McClellan provides unique perspective on what happened and why it happened the way it did, including the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina, Washington’s bitter partisanship, and two hotly contested presidential campaigns. He gives readers a candid look into who George W. Bush is and what he believes, and into the personalities, strengths, and liabilities of his top aides. Finally, McClellan looks to the future, exploring the lessons this presidency offers the American people as we prepare to elect a new leader.
Scott McClellan served as White House press secretary from 2003 to 2006. before that he served as the principal deputy White House press secretary and as traveling press secretary for the bush-Cheney 2000 campaign. Earlier in his career, Mr. McClellan served as deputy communications director in the Texas governor’s office and campaign manager for three successful statewide campaigns. He is now a senior adviser to a global technology firm and communications strategist. Born in Austin, Texas, he now lives near Washington, D.C.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
314 of 389 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars 73% Disapprove For Good Reason, May 28, 2008
By The Spinozanator (Waco, Texas) – See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)
This review is from: What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception (Hardcover)
Scott McClellan was given information to relay to the press about the Valerie Plame incident. Two years later he became convinced he’d been set up to spread lies – maybe not directly by Bush, but certainly by Rove and Libby, and encouraged by Cheney. That was his apparent tipping point. McClellan rethought the whole tenure of his association with the Bush Administration in Washington, began to have epiphanies, and formed new opinions. He doesn’t tell us much we didn’t already know or suspect, but boy does he tell it. This time around it’s coming from a trusted insider who followed Bush to Washington from Texas. Here are a few of his observations:
*Bush believes his own spin (better known as ) and demonstrates a remarkable lack of inquisitiveness.
*Bush favored propaganda over honesty in selling the war. Cheney steered war policy behind the scenes, leaving no fingerprints.
*Bush and his team repeatedly shaded the truth, manipulated public opinion, and sold the Iraq situation in such a way that the use of force appeared to be the only feasible option.
*Contradictory evidence was ignored or discarded, caveats or qualifications to arguments were downplayed or dropped, and a dubious al-Qaida connection to Iraq was played up.
*The Bush administration didn’t check their political maneuverings in at the door after the win – instead, they maintained a permanent campaign mode, run largely by Rove.
*Presidential initiatives from health care programs to foreign invasions were regularly devised, named, timed and launched with one eye (or both eyes) on the electoral calendar.
*Operating in the campaign mode means never explaining, never apologizing, never retreating. Unfortunately, that strategy also means never reflecting, never reconsidering, never compromising.
*Bush is out of touch, operates in a political bubble, and stubbornly refuses to admit mistakes.
*The press is partially responsible for giving Bush soft questions and enabling the president.
*Despite the expose, McClellan describes Bush as a man easily intelligent enough to be President, possessing personal charm, wit, and enormous political skills, who did not consciously set out to engage in these destructive practices.
*McClellan asserts, “What I do know is that war should only be waged when necessary and the Iraq war was not necessary.”
Let’s analyze this a little. All administrations – all humans – try to present themselves in the best possible light, usually to the point of self-deception. Bush insisted from the beginning on certain points of discipline in his administration and under his guidance they did it better – in my opinion, beyond better, extending to abuse of executive power. I don’t dislike all the items on Bush’s agenda, but it’s hard to tolerate a presentation so one-sided it borders on dishonesty. I think McClellan is right in that Bush successfully sold us a bill of goods on Iraq. Even Wolfowitz conceded, “Iraq’s supposed cache of WMD’s had never been the most compelling casus belli. It was simply one of several. For bureaucratic reasons we settled on one issue, WMD’s, because it was the one reason everyone could agree on.”
So it wasn’t WMD’s. Bush was influenced by his war cabinet and others to invade Iraq to seize a valuable piece of real estate. This power grab was going to change the balance of power in the Middle East, change history, and create a legacy for Bush – but he forgot to read the history books. They demonstrate how many times we have attempted to democratize a country and failed – starting with the Philipines in 1898. After the Cold War ended, many democratized of their own accord – when they were ready. War is not a thing to initiate on a hunch.
“Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth or easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tide and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.”
- Winston Churchill
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69 of 86 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars From Someone Who is Actually Reading the Book…, May 30, 2008
By Magic Pete (Alexandria, VA) – See all my reviews
This review is from: What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception (Hardcover)
NOTE: I AM UPDATEING THIS REVIEW AS I READ THE BOOK…SCOLL DOWN FOR the latest ENTRY: and NOTE #2 since the book is now released (i found a copy for sale the week before) I will allow others to read/review and I will edit this review after I finish reading it. So far (about 1/3 of the way through) I still give it 4 stars.
I was compelled to join this discussion as one who is currently reading the book (and update the review as I progress) (NOTE: i was going to uipdate the stars but realize I cannot do this. If that changes I will let you know) in order to help those who want an honest review rather than patisan 5 Stars or 1 Star (depending which side you lean towards)….
I stumbled across this book, tucked on a shelf in the back of a mall bookstore less than one week before it is to officially go on sale. As I approached the cash register I wondered if they would let me purchase it…they did (it already had a 20% off sticker on it, so they must have known what they were doing). As a political junkie, and a peson who loves communication, diplomacy and modern presidential history this book appeals to me right off the bat (having two of the three aspects I like).
The book is wonderfully structured thus far – the introduction, as usual gives a clear thesis of why the author is writing the book, and within the first few chapters we get a look at his time in the White House, his humble beginnings as the son of a Texas Politician, including her many stints as the Mayor of Austin (yes…”her,” the politician is his mother), and relationships with family members such as his Grandfather who was the highly respected Dean of a Law School. This helps the reader become grounded in the moral and ethical upbrining of the author.
It is interesting, while reading this, to see news reports about how this guy was unqualified for his White House job, as the book describes his many jobs for political politicians, including working for one Govenor George W. Bush in Texas in the same capacities as he does in the Bush White House. McClellan describes what he (and if we think back to the late 1990’s) liked about Bush as Govenor – he had a record of reaching across the aisle and working with others for the good of the state. From the author’s detailed, yet readable (meaning not boring) accounts of his upbringing the reader can understand right away how he likes the idea of working together for the good of the country. Though bare knuckle campaign tactics are used when people run for office; once the dust has settled, our country used to come together and move forward.
In short, in the opening chapters – Scott McClellan gives an interesting look at where he comes from and helps the reader to understand who he is. Without blantantly stating this, one can see that McClellan is not a sudden “turncoat” who jumped to the other side…he has very negative things to say about the Clinton administration that will make a lefty cringe, and a righty proud. Hence, thus far, even though as a reader I know where this book is going, I can recommend this book for people on both sides of the aisle.
I will continue reading, and update this…again I thought it best for someone to join in this conversation who is actually reading the book.
Sat. 5/31/08 – Only made a further dent in the book but feel compelled to continue on as I was challenged by a reader who thought I was making up my review. As I told that individual I am an ordained priest and lying is not something that comes so easily…. As the book goes on McClellan talks in depth about his experience on the campaign trail with W and his part in the Florida recount. Again, for anyone who, by listening to pundits, thinks he’s gone to the “left” by reading his assessment of the re-count and his and others contributions to their cause, the reader will understand that he was loyal to his “team,” and as the book goes on he continues to be.
In Chapter 5 he begins an analysis from different books about the concept of “the permanent campaign” – which is the chapter’s title. This is where the book goes from bio to an in depth look at the modern political culture by paring down the various traits i.e. “gotcha politics” and spin machines and more. He ties this into the overall reach of the book by beginning to point out where the new W. administratio began to be flawed. He writes on page 72 “Unfortunately, the incoming Bu9sh administration leanred some of the wrong lessons by watching the Clinton White House As they planned for the new regime in Washington, the did nothign to change the status quo.” He goes onto explain the “everyman, reach-across the aisle” politician that W was as gov., and campaigned on as president was not apporpirately carried over as the people surrounding the new prez decided to play the game by those rules and better than Clinton’s folks did.
Monday June 2 – We get more toward the meat of the book as we come to the events of 9/11. Nice to have the author’s perspective and also a nice change to so many books that this one does not open with those events. The author does a good job to set the scene – who he is, why he likes W. and why he is working for him. At the post 9/11 we see how things begin to go the way they did. The author does a good balancing job – he has some critisicm early about Rove as the first to make 9/11 a partisan issue, but has no kind words for one Sen. Clinton who, although not the first, made a big partisan move from the other side of the aisle. This shatters the image of hope that McClellen had for the W. Bush admin – one that could break the partisan stuff and work together. He sees 9/11 as a time where we could have built on that, but people went back to their play books.
Thus far (1/3rd of the way through) it continues to be an interesting book, with a fresh look at what happend through a lens that both respects aspects of the administration and dislikes other aspects.
At this point – with the book officially out, I post after finishing this…my main point was to put a review on amazon from someone who was actually reading this. So far, I recommend this for both Dems and Reps. There will be aspects you will not like, but others you will agree with.
Comment Comments (9) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? YesNo (Report this)
75 of 109 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars stop brainwashing, May 28, 2008
By S. Lu “leo” (S.CA) – See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
This review is from: What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception (Hardcover)
since words of this book came out, the “red guards” of bush are questioning scott mcclellan why didn’t you say so back then?(so we could fire you years ago?) you supported bush before, now you are criticizing bush government. if you didn’t support bush, you shouldn’t work for him. etc.
this further proves what this book says is very close to the truth and the bush people are totally pissed. they can’t deny facts so they have to find something to attack so they don’t look like a bunch of donkeys which they are.
even all those attacks were true, mcclellan indeed worked in bush cabinet againsted his political opinions, even he’s writing the book just to make some bucks, so what? bush cannot deny he dragged this country into a stupid war for nothing. he says there were WMDs, oops wrong. he says they were linked to al-qaeda, oops wrong. he says mission accomplished, oops wrong. he says we need to bring democracy to iraq, oops not happening. he says we need to continue to spend BIG money and stay there, oops you are out of office. one thing he accomplished well, 1,000,000 iraqi civilian killed, 4000+ us soldiers killed. and counting.
# Audio CD:
# Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks, Inc.; Unabridged edition (June 2, 2008)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 1433214342
# ISBN-13: 978-1433214349
http://rapidshare.com/files/119858443/What.rar
