McClellan: Bush, Cheney 'deceiving themselves' on legacy 'tour'

[struggle4progress]

David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Thursday January 15, 2009

President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have been devoting their final days in office to an attempt to shore up their own legacy. However, former White House press secretary Scott McClellan insists that "nothing's really changed" and that the two men are "deceiving themselves" if they hope to convince people their administration was a success.

"What's really missing in this whole tour -- or legacy project -- is candor," McClellan told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann on Wednesday. "Candor about substance and about policy mistakes that the president is not acknowledging."

"There's a disconnect there between the public's view of his presidency and his own view -- and the vice president's view -- of this presidency," continued McClellan. "And the only way you can begin to close that disconnect is to openly and candidly acknowledge the substantive mistakes that were made. ... All we're seeing now is a calculated effort to engage in a political marketing campaign."

McClellan, who left the White House in 2006, issued a stunning memoir last spring, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception, in which he charged that the administration had used propaganda to sell the Iraq War and that Karl Rove and Scooter Libby "had at best misled" him about their role in the outing of Valerie Plame. He announced in October that he would be voting for Barack Obama ...

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/McClellan_Bush_legacy_project_lacks_candor_0115.html

[theoldman]

1. Scott is wrong.

Bush and Cheney are not deceiving themselves. They know exactly what they are doing and that is to deceive anyone ignorant enough to believe them. I estimate about 100 million Americans still think Bush was a great President.

[struggle4progress]

3. Scotty is having trouble coming to terms with the cynical manner in which he was used

But your numerics are wrong. Estimate 20-25% of Americans believe * has been a great president, With a population of 304 million, that means something like 61-76 million Americans believe * has been great. The number will decline somewhat in the next few years

[tanyev]

2. Scott, the last 8 years were nothing but a calculated effort to engage

in a political marketing campaign. This is just more of the same.

[Skittles]

4. that's rich, coming from a former bush whore

fuck off, Scotty