Wesley Clark Like George McClellan? Rush Hangs Himself in Comparison

Rush Limbaugh's Wesley McClellan

Rush Limbaugh's recent op/ed in the Wall Street Journal tries to draw an unflattering portrait of Wesley Clark by comparing him to General George McClellan, the Civil War general who was relieved of his command by an exasperated President and later challenged that President in the subsequent election.

Already you can see the problem here. Clark was relieved of his NATO command, but not at the hands of an exasperated Clinton. He ran afoul of Defence Secretary Cohen and General Hugh Stanton, who manuveured the snub of Clark. Clark then didn't challenge Clinton, as the parallel requires, but is now challenging the next president, George W. Bush.

So he's like McClellan, and not like McClellan. Let's look at some major points of Rush's comparison between the two and introduce another subject for the sake of true comparison: the record of George W. Bush himself.

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Category	McClellan	Clark	Bush	Rush	The Verdict
College?	West Point	West Point	Yale	Dropped out of Southeasten Missouri State University	No advantage, except over Rush
Place in Class	2nd	1st	Unknown; grades poor enough that both Yale and University of Texas refused him entrance to master's program	N/A	Advantage: Clark
Master's Degree?	None; taught military engineering at West Point	Oxford University; master's in philosophy, politics and economics	Harvard Business School; MBA	N/A	Advantage: Clark
Wars Engaged In	Mexican, Civil War (relieved of command)	Vietnam, Bosnian (fought to victory)	Terror (ongoing)	Rush avoided service with a 1-B (later 4-F) classification due to a pilondial cyst	Advantage: Clark
Military Medals	Undetermined; likely some	Five Defense Distinguished Service Medals, two Army Distinguished Service Medals, the Silver Star, four Legion of Merit Awards, two Bronze Star Medals and the Purple Heart.	Undetermined; likely none	N/A	Advantage: At this point, decidedly Clark
Military career setbacks	Relieved of command (Civil War) after numerous clashes with Lincoln for not using his troops to gain victory in Civil War (factor which won the war after his removal)	Relieved of command (NATO) after numerous clashes with Cohen and Shelton for seeking to use ground troops in Bosnia victory (factor which won the war before his removal)	Suspended from piloting after failure to complete annual physical which may have required a drug test	N/A	McClellan was wrong, Clark was right, Bush wasn't there, and neither was Rush; Advantage: Clark
Highest Promotion in Rank	3 Star General	4 Star General	1st Lieutenant	N/A	Advantage: Clark

As you can see, Clark has it over both McClellan and Bush in these categories. However, if you had to pick which of these three men were most alike, I'd have to say that it's Clark and McClellan. Somehow, I don't think that's such a bad thing as it's being hyped to be.

Rush's performance speaks for itself.

Rush also brings up an number of other memes in contention to be the meme that finally Gored Clark. Here's another table to deal with them.

Meme Name	Meme Text	Rush's Charge	Refutation	Like McClellan?
Using Ground Troops in Bosnia	Clark was wrong to want ground troops in Bosnia	Liberal "Refutation" of Indecisive Like McClellan	The credible threat of ground troops in Bosnia is what finally broke Milosevic's will.	McClellan was relieved of command for not pressing his advantages in victory: UNLIKE - Rush is wrong
Pristina Airport	Clark was reckless and almost caused a "disastrous...outcome"	See above.	Clark was implementing Washington policy. The Russians were severely compromised in supply lines. In later days NATO forces would surround Pristina Airport with no disastrous outcome.	See above: UNLIKE - Rush is wrong.
Flip-Flop on Iraq War	First he said he would vote for the Iraq war resolution, then he said he wouldn't	Indecisive like McClellan	Clark has consistently stated that his support of the IWR was intended for leverage in a UN-based solution, not the war that Bush eventually fought	Indecisive like McClellan? UNLIKE - Rush is wrong
Flip-Flop on Debate	One day he said he wouldn't attend a debate, then he eventually did	Indecisive like McClellan	THIS IS TRUE! Rush got one right...but it's a goofy one to be right about. Clark had been scheduled to speak the night of the debate. He got out of the gig to go to the debate. He wanted to go to the debate, and did.	Can't find any citation of McClellan waffling on debating opponents or not: INCONCLUSIVE
Clark-Rove	When Rove rebuffed him, he decided to become a Democratic candidate.	Big Ego	Clark voted for Clinton twice and Gore once; his offer to help the Bush Administration was immediately following the 9/11 attacks in a spirit of bipartisanship	McClellan was a Democrat who served under a Republican president: LIKE - but Rush is wrong. McClellan's nickname "Little Napoleon" was from military victories, not ego. Both McClellan and Clark can serve bipartisanly, the mark of a disciplined ego
9/11 Hype Call	Claimed White House hyped Iraq connection to 9/11, spoke of call to his house, later claimed that call from "a fellow in Canada who is part of a Middle Eastern think tank"	Something ODD about Clark	Clark broadened his claim of hype so as to tell of the call from # after 9/11, never claimed it came from White House	McClellan's frequent statement about having no intention of being a dictator has no relevance to this event: UNLIKE - Rush is wrong

There are an number of flattering parallels between Wesley Clark and George McClellan. But General Clark is definitely the superior officer, all around, and both send George W. Bush packing to where Rush is hiding out.

All in all, it looks like Rush should stick to radio. Whenever he writes his words down, the outright lies become apparent to all intelligent people.