Recently Reading - What Happened by Scott McClellan

I'm on chapter 13 about Bushes second election campaign. The book overall has been a good read. He doesn't demoralize Bush like some in the Media like to. Scott would say that the attracts on Bush by the Media are to "create controversy and to stir up a story". Which holds a lot of truth but on the other hand he says that the Media as every right to question politicians. He doesn't necessary phrase Bush but points out that he leads on his "gut feelings" rather than on intelligent thought. His advisers go along with it. He points out that people in the Washington bubble including himself and the president are not bad people but have got caught up in the "permanent campaign" witch has been around since the Nixon Administration.

The permanent campaign is an ugly pest that will not go away in the White House and has become view by politicians as part of the everyday life, just like cars are a necessary evil. Once someone becomes president of the United States, they continue to sell their ideas to the public rather than telling the truth and letting people decide. There is little bipartisanship effort made. It makes politicians view politics as warfare; one must attack the other side and make them look real bad. The other side then has to counteract with a response. Its lead to the kind of negativity we are seeing now in the 2008 general election that will ensure the permanent campaign survives.

During the third presidential debate, the narrator asked a question that got both candidates into a perpetual fighting about who's the most negative that would make most viewers change the channel. The permanent campaign is, as Scott put it, "a concept that would have baffled our nation's founders" and goes on to say that they indented to run the country off of volunteers who would leave their farms for a while.

This is an interesting book for anyone interested in current political events and how it will shape the next administration. There is no guarantee that the next president will change. Expensive TV ads makes sure that whoever gets in is tied to the lobbyists. We can only wait and see.