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| What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception | 
 enlarge | Author: Scott Mcclellan
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
Buy Used: $6.00
You Save: $21.95 (79%)
New (75) Used (57) Collectible (6) from $6.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  202 reviews
Sales Rank: 1620
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.3
ISBN: 1586485563
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.931
EAN: 9781586485566
ASIN: 1586485563
Publication Date: May 28, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 An intrguing glimpse... June 3, 2008
79 out of 100 found this review helpful
I'll admit up front that I'm not a G. W. Bush fan in the least. I didn't vote for him twice, and consider myself a true blue Democrat. So, you might be saying, "Of course, he's going to give the book five stars" because of his political beliefs. In actuality, as I will mention later on in the review, this book managed to somewhat change my picture I have of our current president for the better, all the while, giving an intriguing glimpse into his administration.
"What Happened", written by Scott McClellan, former press secretary to the Bush White House, provides a very interesting look at the operations within the everso secretive machinations of the house on 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. McClellan describes in a brief and accessible way his experiences as he worked his way up to his position. The "secrets" he revealed aren't stunning to anyone who's spent time reading the newspapers or following the coverage on the Plame scandal, or the build up to the Iraq War. What's interesting is that someone who had inside knowledge, "was in the know" about so much of this, confirms and denies much.
I won't go through a laundry list of claims that Scott tells in the book. The overt coverage, and other reviewers, have done that enough. I will tell you that, despite his accusations and thoughts about his time in the White House, the story paints a far broader picture than these "stunning revelations".
As with many political memoirs, the author recounts his childhood life and his lead up to his current position in a slow, detail orientated, tedious way. Not McClellan. He jumps into the story feet first, and provides one, maybe two chapters dealing with his early life, and most of it pertaining to when he began to work with then Gov. Bush. Thankfully, 95% of the book solely focuses on the White House years.
McClellan fully admits, throughout the book, to what he saw and didn't see, knew and didn't know. People looking for evidence that Bush rushed to war right after 9/11 will be disappointed. I appreciated his candid thoughts about people still currently serving in the White House, from Condi Rice to Vice-President Cheney. His discussion on the Valerie Plame scandal is extremely thorough, mainly because he became press secretary during that time.
However, and this is near revolutionary, I admired McClellan's discussion on a topic covered extensively by the media: the personality of Bush. It's clear that at first he admires the man, and throughout his time, I believe that admiration deepens. But McClellan's admiration isn't blind; he's able to view Bush as a person, complex and whole. I spent the last few years demonizing the man, thinking his public persona of being inflexible and resolute, was truly what he was like. However, after McClellan telling about Bush visiting the military wounded, and other actions done in the privacy of the White House, I've come around a bit and (here is where I gulp), see Bush as more of a whole person now.
And for that alone, I give the book five stars. History will judge the Bush Adminstration for it's actions. "What Happened" gives us an inside peek at the man at the center of the storm, and what is a peek it is.
Applause! May 29, 2008
58 out of 85 found this review helpful
I am glad Scott McClellan has written this memoir and I hope others continue to step forward with the truth about Bush's corrupt administration. Those who are grading this book with one star haven't read it. They are merely doing what people like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly tell them to do. This was a good read. I couldn't put it down. McClellan points out that Karl Rove executed many of these plans into action, but Bush, Cheney, and their lobbyist agenda played a big hand in decieving the American people and the world. Bush's presidency "wandered and remained so far off course by excessively embracing the permanent campaign and its tactics," McClellan writes. He says Bush relied on an aggressive "political propaganda campaign" instead of the truth to sell the Iraq war... and that is definitely not all. Read the book. Thumbs up Scott.
The NeoCons are shooting the messenger May 30, 2008
48 out of 73 found this review helpful
This is an extraordinary look into the machinations of the Rovian Bush machine and its efforts to turn our Country into an authoritarian regime.
Note that the critical comments are efforts to shoot the messenger, not to debunk the message. Perhaps the right-wing cannot successfully debunk the message.
When will we learn? May 29, 2008
47 out of 74 found this review helpful
I really believe this guy.......I LOVED the book.......we are in deep doodoo because of George Bush...he was a terrible president, and all of the people he surrounded him are as well...all of them teasonous....
Insightful May 29, 2008
46 out of 62 found this review helpful
I thought this book was an easy read and confirms a lot of suspicions. I think it will be an historical inside contemporaneous look at the Bush White House that will be required reading in college classes on early 21st century history & politics.
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