What Happened

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

By: Scott McClellan

Narrated by: Scott McClellan

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)

A good man, but. . .

I can't disagree this is a book written by a good man who was duped by machinistic politics played out by Bush's team. Scott lays out his seven years of ultra-devotion to Bush, showing how Bush was a centrist and uniter as a Governor and a hard line rightist as a President. He speaks with total disdain about the "perpetual campaign" (from a book published in 2000) and explained how Bush went from trying to create consensus to manipulating public opinion to support his ideals, and that bothers Scott. It's also clear that part of Scott's reason for writing the book was to clear his name after being lied to by Rove and Libby.

Having said all that, it's clear Scott doesn't get it, either. He stated that Bush "didn't lie" when Bush said the reason for the Iraq war was WMDs because "there was some evidence" of yellow cake somewhere. But, in the same breath, Scott admits that Bush's real reason for going into Iraq was to create a democratic government, something Bush's media manipulators knew would not "sell" the war. Most people with a strong moral center, which Scott claims to have, would recognize that Bush lied and manipulated the American people.

On the positive side, Scott's narration adds to the personal mea culpa / I was a good guy attraction of the book. He also provides excellent detail about the unfolding events that dogged the white house during his seven years with Bush.

On the negative side, it's clear he wrote this book with an attorney standing over his shoulder: He can't even make negative comments about Rove and Libby. Everyone is his friend and an incredible person. The presentation sometimes comes across like cotton candy.

In the end, I doubt this book will convince anyone that Bush was not a manipulator and created an unnecessary war in Iraq.

The reader ruins the experience

My rating is for the audiobook, not the book. I tried to get past the author/reader's monotone, machine gun speech, not to mention his reading of the word "a" like a second grader, but I couldn't. I would have liked to finish the book, but I won't be able to do that with this reader. I will have to read a print version.

Well, DUH.

I'm glad he puts it out there that Cheney and Rove were involved with covering up an act of treason. But then he gets on a soap box and his dimwitted insights drag on and on. Thank God I could shut it off.

Something is Missing

Scott reads well and his account of his years as the press secretary during a very tumultuous time of war is a wonderfully open glimpse into an extremely closed administration. The reader gets the sense that the former press secretary is trying very hard to get at the crux of what went wrong in the buildup and aftermath of the Iraq War. Scott's answer, which he maniacally holds to, is that recent administrations are always in perpetual election mode. So, one gets caught up in infighting and politics and forgets why one went to Washington in the first place.

To like "What Happened" or not rests on why you would read this book in the first place. If you want to know how the Bush administration worked during the Iraq War from the inside, then it's a pretty good read. But, if you want to know what really did go wrong, and why most American are very suspicious of the way the Bush Administration conducted themselves after 9/11, then you are going to have to read beyond Scott's flurry of words to see into his soul. And, that will be difficult because what you have here is a very clever man who helped in the most public and concrete way to mislead the American people and/or himself into an unnecessary war. What is truly missing in "What Happened" is the answer as to why people like Scott McClellan (and several other key players in the Iraq War) did not resign or go public when they should have.

The Importance of a Narrator

I was a little shocked to find that McClellan chose to narrate this himself and even more shocked when I heard him speak. He's in my all-time bottom 10 of narrators. The biggest problem was the decision to pronounce "a" as "ay" rather than "uh" as in "The president had AY problem" and, worse, "We talked AYbout how we would deal..." Combined with his flat, monotone style he frequently sounds like he's reading a junior high essay at ay national competition. Odd words, too, come flying out at you, most notably "peccadillo" which given the somewhat hayseed reading sound outstandingly clunky.

The book itself is frustrating. Despite preaching aybout bi-partisanship he rarely misses the chance to dig at the "preceding administration" (aka the Cintons). That's not to say that he spares the Republicans but it feels as if the Democrats started it all and, well, what can you do?

I find the writing atrocious. "The curtains in the president's office could stop ay bullet but they couldn't keep out the sunshine..." Please. That's just hacky and polyana-ish. Which is kind of the message of the book. He was there to work for the president and not think too hard. With Plamegate, he asked Rove if he was involved, Rove said no and that was good enough for him. It's not his fault that he was lied to. And in hindsight, maybe he *should* have asked a few more questions but instead he'll write a book.

The other weird thread comes out in the constant references to Texas as if being a Texan gave you instant street cred with McClellan. Maybe that was part of the problem, too.

McClellan insists that it's not a poison pen letter to Bush. And if you think that this portrait of Bush as a "good man" who really didn't know what was going on is flattering, then I guess it's not.

Interesting listen if you love US Politics

I found the book to be an interesting behind the scenes look at a story we all know well. True, most of the basic plot of the story is already known through the media, but Scott adds texture and color to the events as only someone who was there is able. I thought Scott doing the narration was essential and added to the appeal of the book. His Texas accent is exactly right for the content....which is one man trying to make sense of some of the most powerful political events within an administration that brought down many good men and women.

Apologia

With all of the hub-bub surrounding the release of this book/audio book, I was sure that were nuggets of pure gold that would fall from the pages as the narrative developed.

However, no such bounty was to be had. Much of the book was spent making clear what good intentions Bush really had and that the political culture that has developed around this and other similar(read Clinton) administrations was really to blame for the infinite number of bad decisions made by the Bush administration.

The other main emphasis in the book, of course, was to explain in excruciatingly minute detail how good ole 'Scotty' was duped into making false statements over and over again to the American public.

After listening, rewinding several chapter and relistening I can confidently confirm that the following paragraph would have sufficed for the entire book...

"I liked Bush in Texas. I followed him to Washington. The bad system made Bush do bad things. People lied to me and made me look like a liar. I think they are bad. If we change the system we will have no more bad people."

That's pretty much it, no bombshells, no insider information. Just rationalizations for criminal behavior resulting in 4,000+ American deaths and absolution for evil doers in the White House.

Good Job Scotty, really took it to 'em...

Still on message

For years I wondered how this seemingly bright young man could stand before the press and the nation and mutter statements that seemed incredible. This book underscores the culture of deception and outright lying that has been the calling card of the Bush Administration. I was hoping that this book would lay bare the culture of corruption, but instead we find a young man who is still in a severe state of denial. Scott comes across as a likeable fellow, although incredibly naive for someone who grew up within the political environment. While he carefully reveals bits of the truth that most of us had long ago accepted, he cloaks the facts in the shroud of the continuing campaign that has become the cultural norm for Washington. This theme allows him to give a skewed perspective to the earth shaking decisions and deceptions that led our nation into the war in Iraq. Under this continuing campaign culture he seems to equate all misdeeds as just another example of the game in Washington, regardless of the global impact. Scott is clear in his continued support of George Bush as a strong leader, but gives examples of countless poor leadership characteristics of this man throughout the book. I wonder, how given the facts of the past 7 years, he still concludes this man is a great leader. In fact, I wonder if Scott has a full understanding of what leadership really is. He seems to have a good grip on politics and spin, but almost no understanding of leadership as we came to understand it in the military. He still confuses steadfast with stubborn and a lack of intellectual curiosity with laziness. Many people question why he waited so long to tell his story, but it is abundantly clear that he has not yet decompressed from his time under the bubble. Like a brain-washed cult member, he still reveals the traces of the stay on message mindset, and narrow focus of words on issues while missing the larger picture all together.

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.