So Putin is the mastermind behind the hacked DNC e-mails that are the source of today’s brouhaha. This is the big challenge for the expected party unity for the Dems. Why? Mr. Putin wants Trump to be the next US President. That is the claim Robby Mook, Clinton’s campaign manager, made this morning. It is slightly more plausible than suggestions yesterday by Clinton supporters on Fox News that the e-mail messages may not be authentic. But only slightly. And not by much.
If Putin does have an uncanny power to look into a crystal ball and see that Trump is going to dismantle NATO, go hunting shirtless, drink a lot of Vodka, and vacation in Sochi, more power to him. The rest of us are predicting that the Trump rhetoric that can be perceived to be favorable to Russia may be more about bluster than substance. Trump says a lot of things. Trump does not mean them all. Trump is not very predictable. Trump may, or may not, be pro-Russia.
Does this really seem to be a scenario where Putin is going to risk international political exposure to get involved, in a marginal way, in a US election? Perhaps. Obama, after all, was more than a wee bit chilly towards the Russian Man and his vision for a new empire. Clinton will be more of the same. Stranger things have happened.
But isn’t there a more obvious explanation?: the Dem establishment was not that enthusiastic about the socialist from Vermont; and hackers, be they Russian, American or Swedish, simply like exposing political power plays, even if they don’t have state sponsorship?
I’m eager to see what the newly announced “FBI investigation” unearths. One suspects it will be equivocal at best. Precisely why Sanders and Trump have fared so well this election season.