McClellan criticized the Bush Administration in his 2008 memoir, "What Happened". In the book, he accused Bush of "self-deception" and of maintaining a "permanent campaign approach" to governing rather than making the best choices. McClellan stopped short of saying that Bush purposely lied about his reasons for invading Iraq, writing that the administration was not "employing out-and-out deception" to make the case for war in 2002, though he did assert the administration relied on an aggressive "political propaganda campaign" to sell the Iraq War. His book was also critical of the press corps for being too accepting of the administration's perspective on the war and of Condoleezza Rice for being "too accommodating" and overly careful about protecting her own reputation.