No, We are NOT Going to Blame Obama!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[karynnj]

57. It is hard to believe that that would have led to more people knowing that Russia tried to interfere

I think every comedian had lots of fun with the "you are a puppet" stuff - which included HRC's comment that 17 agencies agreed that the Russians were behind the hacking of the DNC and Podesta. So, if you watched the news, the last debate OR any of the late night comedians - you heard about this.

As the WP points out, the announcement by the intelligence agencies was initially swamped by the coverage of the Trump tape, followed by the dump of some Podesta emails. However, the debate comments insure it became well known on both sides. I looked back yesterday and rewatched the exchange (and many Trump/HRC puppets reenacting it.) I was stunned looking at various accounts that this was one of the clearest examples of both sides seeing it through their partisan lens.

What I had seen last fall was a serious, articulate public servant annoyed that Trump was not accepting what the 17 agencies said and Trump then answering in short bursts. I saw it as HRC taking him down. However, reading one analysis, I could see that Trump's answers were speaking to his base. He claimed that this happened because Obama was perceived as weak by Russia. HRC's response was NOT that this happened because Obama had successfully lobbied Europe to join the US in tough economic sanctions that actually hurt Russia, but to simply say that Putin wanted Trump as his puppet. Obama had been as tough and strong as a President could be - short of military response - which would have been catastrophic. Left hanging was the Trump statement that President Obama was seen as "weak".

Now imagine that Obama himself was the person who spoke of the meddling and advised all the states to harden their voting systems. It is hard to know what would happen - as it was a majority of Republican voters already though the election rigged in favor of Clinton ( McClatchy-Marist Poll. Nov. 1-3, 2016 ). Throw in the very far right claim that if they started to win, Obama would postpone or cancel the election. Tell me, those freaks saying this would not feel vindicated and possibly convince more people that this was all a lie to prevent Trump from being elected. Another impact would be that national security, always a Republican strength even when we had a war hero candidate, would become as dominant as it was in 2004. Look at the CNN/ORC Poll. Oct. 20-23, 2016 poll on candidates on the issues - note that Trump was seen as better on BOTH National security and the economy - even as he was seen as poor on most personal characteristics.

In fall of an election year, no incumbent President would be seen simply as the CoC/President, speaking seriously about national security. He (she) would also be seen as a partisan supporting his/her party. I think there might have been more downside for Obama to have personally put out the information than the non partisan Intelligence community. Even had it been President Obama with them, the coverage would have been swamped by the Trump tape. If you recall, there were times when even MSNBC would switch from President Obama, HRC, Michelle etc to cover a reporter saying a Trump event was almost ready to start and then sticking with that for as much as a half hour. Remember that they even gave Melania nearly a half hour of unfiltered coverage as she spoke at some event. Do you really think our media/entertainment would have stayed long with a deadly serious Obama rather than going with the "grab than by their ..."?