Politico shows the before-and-after Scott McClellan

Politico has obtained an authenticated copy of Scott McClellan's book proposal. The proposal sheds more light on the evolution of the book as it progressed through the editing process. A few key graphs:

There have been a number of books written about him, including many more recent ones that portray him in a very negative light.

This book is going to take a much different look at our Nation’s 43rd President. While being supportive of the President, I want to give readers a candid look into who George W. Bush is, what he believes, why he believes it so strongly, and what drives him.

[...]

And, I will directly address myths that have been associated with him, some deliberately perpetuated by activist liberals and some created by the media, and look at the reality behind those myths.
(Politico.com)

But maybe I'll let the editors influence me into going in a different direction.

As others have noted, the ultimate issue is whether or not McClellan's account represents the truth. One thing that cannot reasonably be denied: The new focus the editors helped McClellan achieve will be good for sales.

SPT "In the Know" on Douglas Feith

My local newspaper, The St. Petersburg Times, came up with a cute little jingle some time ago. "In the know, in the Times, whoa whoa whoa whoa" or something to that effect set to music. The idea, of course, is that reading the Times gives you the information you need to know, such as the information in Douglas Feith's recent book on the manner in which decisions about the Iraq War were made.

Well, apparently not. Though the pathetic search feature at the Times cannot be discounted as part of the problem. Search for "Feith" and the most recent story mentioning Feith was from Dec. 2007, before Feith's book was published.

To its credit(?) the Times' search engine doesn't have anything this year for "McClellan" either.

In the know, baby.

Reuters' McClellan video adds little to nothing

Getting McClellan on camera for comments provides the opportunity for McClellan to clarify whether or not the preliminary reviews of his book are accurate. The Reuters video fails in that respect. The video succeeds in highlighting the criticisms attributed to McClellan, however, and Reuters even takes the step of providing additional content apparently intended to buttress the claims reported from the book, as with the material featuring Richard Clarke.

If you like your news fluffy, Reuters has delivered.

The one-line review of Scott McClellan's book (Updated)

Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan's new book, according to early review by Mike Allen, takes President Bush to task for a number of things, including operating on the basis of propaganda.

Given the timing and apparent content of McClellan's book, the final line of Ed Morrissey's sight-unseen book review seems destined to summarize it perfectly: " If the press secretary was that interested in truth, he took an awfully long time to tell it."


Hugh Hewitt talked to Allen last week about the book. Hewitt, amused that Douglas Feith's book shedding considerable new light on the decisions leading to the Iraq War has failed to cause so much as a blip in the mainstream press, noted to Allen that McClellan's book was likely to be reviewed heavily in the mainstream press. Allen agreed, with a wry chuckle of his own.


Update:
A satirical site called Scrappleface has an entry that rivals Ed Morrissey's in terms of pith:

McClellan: Publisher Using Me Unwittingly to Sell Books

by Scott Ott for ScrappleFace · 2 Comments

(2008-05-28) — Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, who claims in a new book that Bush administration officials used him to promote the president’s policies and to defend top officials, today said he suspects he’s being used unwittingly by his publisher to pass along information “just to sell books.”

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