A cynic is a dissapointed idealist:

[jrittenhouse]

…well, sometimes.

I watched the TODAY show and the very good COUNTDOWN / Olbermann interview of Scott McClellan, the former White House press secretary for Bush, and I’m listening to the audio version of his book, and I came to a couple of conclusions.

1. He’s an honest-to-god idealist in politics, whose entire life has centered around political-civics-way-to-improve-things; his mom has been in politics for a very long time, and he was imbued from an early age with the idea of civic duty and the public trust, etc.
2. I really think that he drank heavily of the Bushian kool-aid in the first place, thought that Bush was going to come into the White House to clean up the ‘Clinton mess’, and found that Bush was the wrong person in the wrong job who went with his initial gut feelings rather than think things over, would alter the past because he wanted to believe that his initial decisions or the-way-things-spoze-to-be was correct.  Or, in short, delusional.
3. It took the Plame affair to make him realize that whatever the hell was going on, that he was being dragged into reeking mess after reeking mess, and that he needed to get out.
4. It took him a while to realize how badly he had been torqued around by the kool-aid, and feels horrible that Mr. Friendly and Folksy is also Mr. Wrong For The Country in a big way.  And that he was a part of adding to the mess.
5. The book as it stands is meant as a means of repentance and shining a light on how bad that kool-aid is for you.  He doesn’t expect to make a buck, he just hopes that he’ll be heard.
6. He’s still incredibly naive in spots.