The memoir criticizes George W. Bush and other top level White House officials. The memoir is the first of it's kind from someone who has worked so closely with Bush.

McClellan worked with Bush when he was the governor of Texas and later became the White House press secretary in 2003.

• "No one, including me, can know with absolute certainty how the war will be viewed decades from now when we can more fully understand its impact, What I do know is that war should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary."

• "The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and [[I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby|Scooter Libby]]."
• ""There was one problem. It was not true."
• "I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice President, the President’s chief of staff, and the president himself."