Former presidential PR guy McClellan publishes a truly odd book
You know the old adage: "You can't make silk flowers out of a sow's ear." Oh, okay, I guess that's "silk purse" -- anyway, you know the idea behind it, right: Radical makeovers rarely last.
Maybe I'm just being too cynical here, but I really was as surprised as the various media people on both the conservative and liberal end of the political spectrum at Scott McClellan's "tell all" book. Are we supposed to believe that a long-time Bush aide and friend suddenly "got religion" and now is denouncing all the stuff he once fed to the press and the public as Bush's mouthpiece??
I have not yet read the book, but I've seen some discussions and quotations from it. As best as I can tell, McClellan portrays George W. Bush as somewhere between clueless and stupid. Either he was mislead because he was too gullible and easily misled by those advising him, or he was simply too dumb to understand what was going on around him. From all I've heard of the book, frankly, I'm not clear whether McClellan was trying to excuse his old boss or condemn him. Probably, the book is a mixture of both.
In an odd twist to the story, McClellan met former counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke last evening in a New York hotel lobby. He publicly apologized to Clarke for the harsh treatment he -- McClellan -- had spouted to the media about Clarke's "tell all" book. Clarke accepted his apology.
How much of this is truth, is reality, and how much is pandering for book sales? I haven't the slightest idea. But always remember, whether we're talking about McClellan or Bush or Dick Chaney or any other high-level White House figure/politician -- we are talking about people who are masters of faked sincerity.
Time will tell, I suppose, once we have time enough gone by between the present Bush White House and all the future revelations about it. I'm reminded of an expression a Bush foe used about George W. in his recent memoir. He called Bush "a little man," and "a towering mediocrity."
Perhaps those terms would apply to McClellan, also.
Technorati Tags: tell all books, Scott McClellan, George W. Bush, presidential politics, take time for living
