Another Tell All Book

We just love tell all books. We can't help looking for that secretive and special information that conforms to our thoughts about a person, place or institution. Manuscripts such as Malcolm X's, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Barbara Walter's, Audition: A Memoir, and my own Inside the Nation of Islam were successful sellers because they brought readers into a formally closed world that now has become exposed like the mytical story of the King who rode naked on a horse through the village square thinking that he was wearing a beautiful robe. But, while we love to read the inside track of controversy there has not been such hoopla in recent memory about a manuscript in the manner as Scott McClellan's What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception has produced. McClellan's book that is scheduled to be release in the first week of June has already reached the top of the New York Times bestseller's list.
What is the reason for its popularity? Why are people charging their credit cards on Amazon. com to purchase this book? Sadly, the storyline is that President Bush is the person that people love to hate. Throughout his tenure as president he has been mocked as an idiot, buffoon, liar and blood thirsty warmonger. He is blamed for the high price of oil, foreclosures, the recession, global warming, hurricane Katrina, industrial outsourcing, and probably for the earthquake in China. Therefore, anyone and everyone who has a beef with Bush and who reads McClellan's What Happened, will surely remark in a four word sentence, "I told you so," that Bush is a bad and incompetent president. However, we must ask, what motivated McClellan to write the manuscript? Many conservative thinkers and Bush backers maintain that he wrote for money. Others argue that he decided to leap from a sinking ship to save himself. Still others pen that the author's views are wrong and misleading; implying that McClellan is going through an emotional meltdown.
The former White House Press Secretary simply responded to such criticism as an attempt to nullify his words as he has exchanged his clothe of loyalty to President Bush for the "loyalty to the truth." Regardless, of the location of the truth in relationship to President Bush and Mr. McClellan, it is certain that this read is going to add more flavor to an already juicy political year. However, before we judge McClellan as a truth teller or cheap opportunist--let's read the book. Look for my book review on What Happened in the next few days.