One of the debates now raging over the Obama administration’s falsification of intelligence relates to Vladimir Putin’s motive in trying to impact our 2016 presidential election. Barack Obama and John Brennan pushed the idea that Putin wanted Donald Trump to win the election, while the intelligence professionals saw little or no evidence of that preference, and believed that Putin was just trying to sow discord.
But my question is: since when do we care about Russia’s preferences in our elections? For what it is worth, I think it is highly unlikely that Russia’s leaders have ever, in the post-war era, wanted a Republican to be elected president. We know for sure that in 2008, Russia backed Barack Obama. I wrote about it at the time:
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Pravda records the enthusiastic reaction of Russian politicians toward the election of Barack Obama. Most perceptive, I think, is the head of Russia’s Communist Party, Gennady Zyuganov:
All Republican presidents have always defended national interests, ignoring the interests of other countries of the world. The new US president cannot but understand that it is impossible to seek and find answers to many global issues without the participation of such a great country as Russia.
That’s one of the things that cause some of us to be Republicans.
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I don’t recall anyone caring in 2008 that Barack Obama was–for good reason–the Russians’ choice to be president.
