Looking for Smart Observations About the Scott McClellan Book Pandemonium?
As this story begins to fade away, I still haven't posted any of my thoughts on this. And frankly, my observations are now 'mush.' That said, here are some random reflections:
- I won't be among the Scott McClellan bashers. Candidly, I had been looking forward to this book being published for awhile. He owes the Bush administration no more loyalty than they showed him. He had a brutally difficult job dealing with incredible dualities...as in, "I'm an honest person with integrity, and yet I'm selling myself out in the biggest of ways by getting my head bashed in night after night telling falsehoods or obscuring the truth." Obviously that's not a real quote!
- Come to think of it, the buzz in advance of this book began many months ago, so feigned surprise by observers is really a bunch of BS. In fact, I'm betting the Republican spin machine was ready with a generic response awhile ago. As early as late last Summer, it was very clear this book was coming down, and that it was going to be a head turner.
- It's still not really clear to me what McClellan's main motive was in putting this book out, beside the money. Was it really to stop the process of permanent campaigning and bring the two parties together in a spirit of bipartisanship? Mission NOT accomplished. And I've got to tell you, once Obama really starts flinging the 'four more years of Bush' slam against McCain, we'll experience the loveliness of even more divisiveness.
- BTW, I can't say that I won't be more receptive to that Obama message, particularly after seeing the Republican response to the McClellan book, which sickened me. I don't want to pay more taxes, but we desperately need a change. Call me undecided...but that's a change for me.
- Naivete abounds in the broadcasting world. King of the Naivete award goes to Anderson Cooper of CNN, who revealed that he has no idea how public relations works, particularly at an executive, or executive office level. My favorite was his surprise that the Bush administration would deploy a chief spokesperson to represent the White House who was not fully 'in the know.' Duh!!! That's the whole point. Either he knew this and was being coy or he is missing a pretty critical microprocessor.
- The snake award goes to Ari Fleischer. Oh yeah, he 'gets' PR, and he certainly ran point for the Administration these past few days. What a sleaze. I loved how he kept insinuating that McClellan's career was over. Right, and like any of the top ten PR firms on the planet won't hire him, and pay him handsomely.
- The hero award goes to NBC White House Correspondent David Gregory, who unemotionally asked a series of great questions to a pretty high quality panel of guests on an MSNBC show that aired on Wednesday night. Very informative. And yes, it was David Gregory who used to get fairly PO'd at McClellan during many a press conference back in the day.
- The goat award goes to Bill O'Reilly, whose partisanship and bullheadedly one-sided view of the story was clearly on display both on Wednesday and last nights. Practicing low- brow journalism at its worst, O'Reilly couldn't wait to get to his second story of the night on Wednesday...about some freakin' schoolgirl fight that aired on YouTube. Bill, please feed us more mind numbingly dumb Big Macs to the brain, so we can become even fatter and dumber than we already are.
- I also give myself a goat award. Back in late 2002 I was constantly telling my wife that we were getting sucked into a 'Wag the Dog' campaign. It was really a concern to me. And then what? By the time we invaded I got sucked in by the fervor...the patriotism of it all. By mid-2003 I was trouncing around my gym in a "Boycott France" t-shirt. Lesson learned! OK...let's not get crazy. It's not like I'm wearing "I love Barbara Boxer" t-shirts at the gym nowadays. But lesson learned.
- And oh yes, I'm looking forward to reading this book. Consider the source.
