HAS TRUMP MADE A FATAL ERROR?

In his most recent Tweetstorm, President Trump seems to have internalized (and accepted) the idea that Russia hacked (or tried to hack) the 2016 election. And naturally he blames Barack Obama for not doing anything to stop it.

Much as he hates to insinuate Putin had done anything wrong, Trump is even more eager to attack Obama. Trump is the official anti-Obama, after all. Everything Obama did, Trump has pledged to undo.

(Anything Obama can do, Trump can do better!)

Trump also maintains that a blizzard of Russian-based Fake News had no effect on the outcome of the election. (So why bother to do anything to stop it?)

I think he's getting his messages in a twist.

It has been reported Russia broke into the voter databases of a number of states—but apparently didn't change anything. (Maybe it was a dry run for what's coming.) Conclusion: There was no effect on the election—from this action.

But that was only a small part of what Russian operatives did.

Madison Avenue folk often state that half of every advertising dollar is wasted. They just don't know which half.

It's reported Russia spent $1.2 million a month on their disinformation campaign, but Trump wants us to believe all of their money was wasted. Really? There were Republican hotheads demonstrating in the street over some issue or other, orchestrated by a foreign power. And that had no effect on anyone?

(Maybe we should stop having elections, since nothing anybody says or does affects the outcome.)

I remind you that most advertising is not aimed at getting you to change your mind about some product, but to remain loyal to the product you've already chosen.

Also, say a thing often enough, and human critters are designed to think it's true.

("There's no collusion—and everybody knows it!"—DJT)

Putin blames Hillary for inciting demonstrations in Moscow against his regime during the 2014 winter Olympics. As a result, Russia was working to poison minds against Clinton long before Trump entered the race. That doesn't mean the Donald didn't benefit from their effort.

(How many votes for Trump were really votes against Hillary?)

Now we're ramping up to a midterm election, followed in two years by the presidential election of 2020. What Trump needs to do is get deep into the details. He needs to list all the things Obama failed to do in 2016. Because this time Trump is in charge. He's the one responsible for doing what Obama couldn't.

(It should be easy, right?)

Trump needs to come down hard on Putin, starting by implementing the sanctions already authorized by Congress. From now on, each and every instance of fake news from Russia represents a failure of the President to do his job.

And it doesn't even matter if nothing is changed by stopping it!

Those monsters running this country's mainstream media will make it their business to wave every single example of Russian meddling in Trump's face, one after another, until their position is inescapable: The President cannot protect us from foreign bullies.

I think the man might have to nuke Moscow.