The presidency of George W. Bush veered terribly off course, and the administration was guilty of a, in his words, excessive embrace of the permanent campaign approach to governance.
Scott McClellan criticizes the Bush administration's governance style.
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Yes. No, I was sincere at the time. Now, looking back and reflecting on that, I have a different perspective on it.
But the federal government should have taken more responsibility, because, to the American people, I think, the federal government is the failsafe backstop to all that.
We should have embraced a high level of openness and forthrightness, in addition to that, and then the expectations wouldn't have gotten so out of whack, and we wouldn't have been in the problem we were -- we came to later when the…
Unfortunately, I think too many people today do look at Washington and say, 'All they're giving us is spin and manipulation, and they're not working together to get things done.'