Bush's Former Press Secretary Endorses Obama

NPR: Scott McClellan, President Bush's former press secretary, says he is backing Barack Obama for president.

McClellan made the endorsement during a taping of Comedian D.L. Hughley's new show that is premiering on CNN this weekend. The former Bush administration official said he wanted to support the candidate that has the best chance for changing the way Washington works and getting things done.

McClellan to Donate Book Proceeds To Soldiers Families

on meet the press, scott mcclellan, writer of the new book about how george bush used propaganda to sell the war, told tim russert he plans to donate some of the proceeds to soldiers families. personally, i completely understand mcclellan's position and why he didn't speak up sooner.
his lesson: speak up and don't put yourself in a position to unknowingly pass along wrong information.

Don't Blame McClellan

i understand scott mcclellan and why he didn't come to any realizations until years after he served with bush and his club. sure, it would've been nice if he spoke up then, instead of selling the war.

the thing i don't get is i understood cheney and his sidekick bush were selling a war and i'm not exactly brilliant or anything but so many took the bait. i don't think americans took the bait because we were stupid or because the bush administration did a particularly good job at selling the war.

i think bush and his lot were able to sell it because that's what the majority of americans wanted at that time. they wanted a war and so they chose to close their eyes to the evidence. that's exactly what scott mcclellan did. he closed his eyes and hoped for the best.

now this man is being held up as a disloyal monster. he didn't know any better. he was part of the bush bubble, the small world with small beliefs. it's like being a member of any tight knit group, you tend to feed off one another, support one another. the tendency is to never be critical of one another. he was on the selling team and we were on the buying team and both parties were ready and willing.

he's said stuff that we all know now (and some of us then) was true and now he's being made into a villain because he didn't speak up then. well, that's how learning happens. we can always look back in hindsight and say, wow, was that stupid. for our part, as americans, i don't think we've looked at why we were culpable for the war in iraq. we should have held our media to a higher standard. we should've looked more carefully at the evidence, or lack of. we need to share in the blame. we need to learn a lesson so it doesn't happen again.

Former Bush Loyalist McClellan Tells it Like it Is

former white house press secretary scott mcclellan writes a new book and says stuff that we pretty much already know.

politico: Among the most explosive revelations in the 341-page book, titled “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception” (Public Affairs, $27.95):

• McClellan charges that Bush relied on “propaganda” to sell the war.

• He says the White House press corps was too easy on the administration during the run-up to the war.

• He admits that some of his own assertions from the briefing room podium turned out to be “badly misguided.”

• The longtime Bush loyalist also suggests that two top aides held a secret West Wing meeting to get their story straight about the CIA leak case at a time when federal prosecutors were after them — and McClellan was continuing to defend them despite mounting evidence they had not given him all the facts.

• McClellan asserts that the aides — Karl Rove, the president’s senior adviser, and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the vice president’s chief of staff — “had at best misled” him about their role in the disclosure of former CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity.