What did you know and when did you know it?

I spent five years of my life as a press secretary to a governor.  Watching Scott McClellan, Bush's press secretary, doing a White House briefing is painful.  Paul Holmes says it is sometimes hard not to feel sorry for McClellan these days.  From my experience, I don't feel sorry for him as much as I would like five minutes with him to tell him he has become a caricature of a bad press secretary.

He appears to be more out of the loop than any other person in that position has been, perhaps ever.  The latest brouhaha surrounding the Vice President's hunting trip to Texas is simply another in a long line of issues that McClellan won't discuss with the media because it is apparent by now that he is not close to the room where any decisions are made about how anything is going to be communicated.  It is sad and it does make me feel a bit sorry for him.

At the end of the day, the problem is not with Scott McClellan.  He is simply a byproduct of the real problem.  We have become victims of our own success in public relations.  Everyone wants a message point now.  Everyone expects a strategic plan that will communicate their way out of a sticky issue.  I have a strategic communications plan for the Bush Administration, Congress and for people contemplating running for either in the future:

Tell us the truth in a timely manner.

I guess we will have to see what Scott McClellan knew and when he knew it when he writes his memoirs. 

Comments

[Lil Bro]

Amen....I mean if he is the "face" of the adminstration and he is that clueless, can you imagine what the "brains" of the adminstration must be like. At least they've got good aim.