The man whose job it was to push the policies of the Bush administration has just penned a book in which he criticizes his boss & those who worked for him.
Scott McClellan left his job as White House Press Secretary in April of 2006 during a staff shakeup. Now his new book, “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception,” to be released later this week, is sending shockwaves throughout Washington among those who thought he was a “loyal Bushie.”
The Politico broke the story.
Key details, taken from the Washington Post’s article:
“…the Iraq war was sold to the American people with a sophisticated “political propaganda campaign” led by President Bush and aimed at “manipulating sources of public opinion” and “downplaying the major reason for going to war.” … in a chapter titled “Selling the War,” he alleges that the administration repeatedly shaded the truth and that Bush “managed the crisis in a way that almost guaranteed that the use of force would become the only feasible option.”
Bush is depicted as an out-of-touch leader, operating in a political bubble, who has stubbornly refused to admit mistakes. McClellan defends the president’s intellect — “Bush is plenty smart enough to be president,” he writes — but casts him as unwilling or unable to be reflective about his job. “A more self-confident executive would be willing to acknowledge failure, to trust people’s ability to forgive those who seek redemption for mistakes and show a readiness to change,” he writes.
He accuses former White House adviser Karl Rove of misleading him about his role in the CIA case.
He describes Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as being deft at deflecting blame.
He calls Vice President Cheney “the magic man” who steered policy behind the scenes while leaving no fingerprints.
“The president had promised himself that he would accomplish what his father had failed to do by winning a second term in office,” he writes. “And that meant operating continually in campaign mode: never explaining, never apologizing, never retreating. Unfortunately, that strategy also had less justifiable repercussions: never reflecting, never reconsidering, never compromising. Especially not where Iraq was concerned.”
The ill-fated Air Force One flyover of New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina struck the city, was conceived of by Rove, who was “thinking about the political perceptions” but ended up making Bush look “out of touch,” he writes. He says the White House’s reaction to Katrina was more than just a public relations disaster, calling it “a failure of imagination and initiative” and the result of an administration that “let events control us.” He adds: “It was a costly blunder.”
& finally, in commenting to the Washington Post, McClellan said
“Like many Americans, I am concerned about the poisonous atmosphere in Washington. I wanted to take readers inside the White House and provide them an open and honest look at how things went off course and what can be learned from it. Hopefully in some small way it will contribute to changing Washington for the better and move us beyond the hyper-partisan environment that has permeated Washington over the past 15 years.”
To those of you who don’t feel this should be a post on a blog that focuses on the next President, you’re wrong. This is exactly appropriate for this blog. Any American who cares about the future of our country (not to mention its safety/security) needs to recognize why George W. Bush has been one of the worst presidents this country has ever had. The next president, at a bare minimum, has to be different in these ways:
1. Govern the entire nation instead of worrying solely on “C.Y.A.” for yourself or your party
2. Be constantly inquisitive & self-reflective about one’s role as President
3. Have the wisdom to surround yourself with people who’s ideas don’t always line up with yours
4. Have the courage to admit when you make a mistake
All three of the remaining candidates have a chance to change the office of the presidency for the better. We should dedicate ourselves to holding their feet to the fire when it comes to doing so.
What do you think?
Posted in: President Bush
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
…George W. Bush has been one of the worst presidents this country has ever had… (Your words.)
Watch it! Your bias is showing!
You need to have respect for the President in office. This causes others, especially the younger generation to not have respect. Obviously you have no respect, that might be partly to blame that your parents never taught you any. It is obvious you are a liberal democrat from the word go and cannot see any truth to what they really stand for. But this is the liberal media and it is only one sided, the wrong side. No democrat would have had the courage to go to war and defend this country. All they want to do is give up the war against terrorism and then we will be fighting on our own soil if the democrats let us even keep our guns. Obama has no respect for our flag or anything that is red blooded american because he is not one.