Both Obama and Trump Fear Putin

by Deacon Blues

The saddest part of this Washington Post story today, in which the paper recounts how the Russians launched their social media disinformation efforts over the last decade with nary a response from this country, is that Presidents Obama and Trump do share one thing in common: Both were, and are scared of what Vladimir Putin would do if we ever hit back. Weenies. And Putin is still doing it, unchecked.

For all the talk about Obama's virtue and wisdom in not getting into foreign entanglements, the man screwed up big time especially in his second term because he was too fixated on getting a deal done with Iran, and didn't want to do anything that jeopardized that.

Challenging Putin with tit-for-tat cyber and social media counterpunches fell off the grid inside the Obama White House after Crimea, and Obama didn't do anything about the Russian meddling until after it was way too late. It's easy to blame Trump now for not doing anything to stop the Russians from doing it again in 2018; the man sophomorically believes he as the ultimate deal maker can get his buddy Vlad to play ball without challenging him. But it's also true that Obama could have taken direct measures against Putin and Russia long before the 2016 election season if only he gave a damn about something more than his legacy.

One more thing: Trump and the White House always assert that the Russia story is a "hoax" and "fake news", with the claim that such allegations are simply a misdirection attempt away from Hillary and the Democrats' own campaign failings.

"If it changed one electoral vote, you tell me," said a senior Trump administration official, who, like others, requested anonymity to speak frankly. "The Russians didn’t tell Hillary Clinton not to campaign in Wisconsin. Tell me how many votes the Russians changed in Macomb County [in Michigan]. The president is right. The Democrats are using the report to delegitimize the presidency."

This coming from the man who spent years trying to delegitimize Barack Obama through his birther theories.

Nonetheless, Democrats should respond by confirming that yes, Trump won the electoral vote, and that there is no evidence that Putin and Russia manipulated votes or the voting systems. But what Democrats should say in response is that Russia influenced the vote, and the Trump campaign worked with sympathizers inside the FBI to kneecap Hillary weeks before Election Day. So if Trump's allies inside the House and Senate want to now investigate political bias inside the Bureau, Democrats should say "sure, let's start with the New York Field Office and 2016."