The rest of the foreign policy team seemed to be preoccupied with regime change or, in the case of Condi Rice, seemingly more interested in accommodating the president's instincts and ideas than in questioning them or educating him.
McClellan critiques the foreign policy team for not challenging President Bush's views on the Iraq war.
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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.
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.'
You have a lot of good people that come there for the right reasons, to make a difference, but they get caught up in this permanent campaign culture, where it's all about manipulating the narrative to their advantage.
If the president is committed to embracing a high level of openness and honesty, then we can move Washington beyond this partisan warfare that has been so destructive.