What Happened

Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception

By: Scott McClellan

Narrated by: Scott McClellan

Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

Scott McClellan belonged to President Bush's select inner circle of trusted advisers during one of the most challenging, contentious periods of recent history. Over a period of more than seven years, he witnessed, day-to-day, exactly how the presidency veered off course, not only by its decision to topple Saddam Hussein, but by an embrace of confrontational politics in the face of an increasingly partisan Washington and a hostile media.

In this refreshingly clear-eyed book, McClellan provides his unique perspective on what happened and why it happened the way it did, including the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina, and two hotly contested presidential campaigns. He gives listeners a candid look into who George W. Bush is and what he believes, and explores the lessons this presidency offers the American people as they prepare to elect a new leader.

©2008 Scott McClellan (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"The former press secretary of President Bush (No. 43 version) empties out his notebooks, and all of Washington will be holding its breath." ( Seattle Times)

Poor narration

Why authors occasionally insist on narrating their own books remains a mystery to me. McClellan sounds as boyish here as he did in the White House. It is a painful distraction to hear him read. I may not be able to finish what is clearly an important revelation about a morally dishonest and corrupt administration.

We give this

4 stars because of the awful narration by the author. He should have let a professional narrator do this for him. He narration is stiff, dull, boring and what's with the pronunciation of all words beginning with the letter "A".

However, this is an extremely interesting and insightful book from an insider who finally began to question what he was being told. For years he blindly followed the inner workings of his chosen party. We see how dangerous that can be as this book goes on.

Hopefully this book will lead us all to question more of what we are told by any administration rather than blindly follow along. Hopefully we've learned from the past 8 years. It's okay to question, it's not UN-patriot to do so.

Critical Self Examination Of Bush White House

Give Scott credit for trying to write a critical examination of the failed Bush Presidency. According to Scott, Bush and members of his administration "dissembled". No Scott, the word you need to use is lied and Bush did it repeatedly, in every form possible, Scott acknowledges that not only did Bush tell them but that Bush could even come to believe his own lie to himself that he couldn't really remember if he ever used cocaine. In a nut shell, Scott tells us that the problem with the Bush administration is a political culture in Washington that operates in "permanent campaign mode", on both sides of the aisle. Certainly there is truth to this charge, but again, he fails to acknowledge that it is Karl Rove that promised to create a "permanent Republican majority" or that in the period from 2002-2006 when Republicans controlled both houses of congress and the White House their leadership made "permanent campaign mode" into an art form. By the way it's the Democrats that destroyed the bipartisan goodwill that existed after 9-11 ( oh please ). So yes there is enough truth to what Scott has to say to make it a worthwhile read even though he doesn't acknowledge the criminal wrong doings of his bosses. Scott narrates and does a reasonably good job of telling his "story".

what happened?

while somewhat simplistic, i found this to paint one of the most sympathetic portraits of a much maligned President. I was at a complete loss to understand why Bush and his allies felt this was an attack. For someone with as dismal a record as the current president, the kind words and sympathetic observations at least humanised Bush. He comes forth as well meaning yet manipulated by Rove, Rumsfield and Cheney, the true axis of evil. After listening to this, I cannot help but feel had Bush been left to his own devises, and not "advised" by such aggressive and self-serving people, this country may well be in a far better place. The narration was somewhat forced and did not flow as well as some, however it was listenable. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a beter idea of how a basically descent man was put in over his head, and made the fool by those with an outdated failed agenda from the past.

An Introspective Analysis

Scott McClellan presents us with an intriguing perspective on the inside workings of the White House. Fascinating how his trust and respect for President Bush was eroded by the political workings of the institution. Concurrently, I am reading Valerie Plane Wilson's book, "Fair Game" -- a good combination.

One persons viewpoint

Scott presents events from his view point and does a good job of explaining some of the problems with politics today. I enjoyed the book and his insight. It is a good depiction of the events that took place during President G.W. Bush's years in office.

Very Insightful

I thought this book was a great read. It answers a lot of questions about why things happened the way they did in the Bush Whitehouse. It also imparts a good understanding of how things work in Washington DC and why we seem to be perpetually disappointed with politicians.

I agree with some of the comments about the chapter dealing with Scott's background being a bit tedious. We spend a bit more time than seems necessary in Scott's youthful days. I was baffled why he thought the anecdotes about his grandfather where pertinent but after getting through that part, the relevance becomes clear when taken in context with the subject matter.

Ultimately, the number of "ah ha" moments rise from a trickle in the first half of the book to a torrent in the last half. As I got the "behind the scenes" view of events I watched unfold on CNN, the president's abysmal approval rating made a lot more sense.

A keen insight regarding our countries leadership

I appreciated this book for it's very candid view of the white house administration. It discusses how decisions are made, and gives insight into the process of government at the highest levels (something most of us have little experience in).

I also thought that it gave a reasonably impartial view of the president and other key administration officials. Clearly McClellan takes some issue with how decisions are made, but from this book I came away with a more positive and more negative view of Bush and his advisers in different aspects of their leadership of this country.

All in all I appreciated the candid view of out countries administration and feel like I'm better able to make decisions about other leaders in the future because of it.

Excruciating

I should have paid more attention to the book's description. I missed the part that named Scott McClellan as the narrator. His Texas accent and plodding delivery started getting on my nerves within moments of starting the book, and I never reached the point where I could ignore them. I now understand what the White House press corps had to suffer through during his tenure.

Mia Culpa

This book is well written, but his revelations are a bit late in coming. The information is interesting, but his myriad of justifications for his actions and denial of consequences of events sounds a bit like he wants absolution for his sins. Mia culpa Scott. Good for you for coming clean, but I find it difficult to believe you are a smart person who was manipulated by an administration who took advantage of your blind faith and desire to do good.