Genealogy Books - What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception

Back to What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception

Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating:

Summary: Intensely Reasonable
Comment: "What Happened" is full of great insider information put forth by an intensely reasonable story
teller who seems to have no other agenda than the truth. I am no fan of the Bush administration.
But I've had my fill of books that conclude that George Bush is either evil or stupid or both. It
was refreshing to read an account that put blame on a bad mix of character flaws and events. Mr.
McClellan has the perspective of an historian. I enjoyed being drawn into this inner circle and
given a broader perspective on the most important events of our time.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Fantastic Book
Comment: As someone who is left-leaning I tried to read this book without any preconceived notions. Mr.
McLellan's book is an extremely well written history of what happened during his time working for
George W. Bush. When there are facts to be presented, he presents them as neutral as possible.
When he gives his own opinion, he clearly states that it is his opinion, and shouldn't be taken as
fact.

The first half of the book was basically praising Bush and explains why Scott
joined him in the first place. The second half explains, in detail, what went wrong.
/>This book actually gave me a little bit more respect for Bush, as the mistakes he made could have
been made by many people, myself included. However, we expect more out of the President of the
United States, and he should not be excused for what he did.

Whether you're a
hard-core conservative, a hard-core liberal, or some where in between, I highly recommend this book.

Customer Rating:

Summary: What Happened? McClellan Happened
Comment: Scott McClellan's White House memoir is a somewhat erratic telling of his years working for
President Bush. On the one hand, McClellan criticizes the mindset of the permanent campaign with
its distortions and manipulations.

On the other hand, those same principles are okay
with McClellan when it comes to elections. That distinction may sound great on the surface, but
given midterm elections and even off year elections that occur in states like Virginia and
Mississippi, where President Bush was happy to involve himself when he was popular, when is it not
an election?

McClellan is also deeply torn on how responsible President Bush himself is
for the problems that have plagued his presidency. With candor, McClellan admits that President
Bush was not intellectually curious enough at times. He also admits that President Bush told him to
do things that were incorrect, like speak up for Karl Rove during the Valerie Plame leak
investigation. But at other times McClellan talks about President Bush's abilities honesty, how he
would not intentionally mislead him, and so on.

The former press secretary has some
blinders when it comes to President Bush. He says that he truly believed President Bush could unite
the country as President. McClellan must have been watching a different guy then over half the
voters were in November of 2000. McClellan also blames the media for not doing its due diligence in
questioning the Iraq war, which is ironic since it was his own press operation that stifled the
media. McClellan also likes to treat the Bush Administration's permanent campaign mentality as an
extension of the Clinton Administration, basically failing to acknowledge how much more pervasive
the take no prisoners political operation was in the Bush White House. For example, McClellan talks
about the need for a more bipartisan cabinet, noting that Norm Mineta, President Bush's first
Transportation Secretary, was too much of a token appointment. McClellan talks about the need for a
Secretary of State, Defense, or Treasury from the other party. Which is exactly what Clinton did
when he appointed Maine Republican Senator Bill Cohen as his third and final Secretary of
Defense.

Unlike many partisan Democrats who praised McClellan for speaking out when the
book was released, I give him no credit. Had he really felt strongly about the issues raised in the
book, he should have resigned the first time he was asked to lie, or mislead. In fact, McClellan
never quit but was fired. He makes some statements in the book that he had planned to resign in the
coming months anyway, but these internal thoughts probably went through his mind throughout his
years in the White House and I give them no credence. It is easy to see why McClellan was fired.
He was press secretary during some of the Administration's roughest events and did not come off well
on television. Ari Fleischer was abrasive, but effective. The late Tony Snow and Dana Perino have
been press secretaries during periods of time when President Bush was less popular and more
ineffective, but that has served to lower the stakes on their role. McClellan was there at a
crucial time and did not serve the President, or the people, well. His book just confirms that. />
One coda there is an excellent story in the book about President Bush calling McClellan's
wife after McClellan was fired. It is a human moment for the President and makes you understand why
McClellan has blinders for him.

Customer Rating:

Summary: WHAT HAPPENED
Comment: BOUGHT THIS BOOK FOR MY HUSBAND. HE WANTED TO READ ABOUT THE INSIDE DIRT IN DC. THIS BOOK SHOULD
DO IT!

Customer Rating:

Summary: Not bad, but not particularly insightful
Comment: If you're looking for a scathing critique of the Bush administration from an embittered turncoat,
this ain't it. Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan comes off as merely disillusioned
about Washington -- maybe a little peeved at Karl Rove, distrustful of Dick Cheney, and certainly
disappointed in his one-time idol, George W. Bush -- but that's about all. He picks over the
minutiae of the cooked pre-war intelligence on Iraq and the Valerie Plame scandal--his main bugbear
as he was forced to lie conspicuously about it--without really denouncing them. His writing is as
cautious as it is bland.

McClellan says he wrote this book to try to set the record
straight, to recapture some of the personal integrity he feels the job cost him. Yet he seems
unwilling to blame or condemn much beyond repeating how the "perpetual campaign mentality" and
Washinton's deepening partisan schism makes for less effective government. He adds little to the
public discourse on derisive partisan politics, nor does he make it interesting with pointed insider
detail. McClellan seems reluctant to make enemies, so he spends 300 pages exorcizing his own small
demons instead of fighting the big dragons.

The moments in this book I found most
enlightening are the small personal observations he makes about Bush. His mean-spirited sense of
humor. The way he belittles dissenters. His refusal to re-think any decision. His capacity for
self-delusion. These bits of insight McClellan makes almost inadvertently -- remember, he claims to
like and admire Bush for the most part -- speak volumes. Otherwise, this book -- like the career of
McClellan itself -- is just a footnote to the great Machiavellian machinery of the Bush
administration. History will forgive and forget mild-mannered Scott McClellan. The
Bush-Cheney-Rove trinity will not likely get off so easy when at last the full account of "what
happened" is written.

- mattmchugh.com

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