GEORGE FRIEDMAN: Obama’s Deep Dive Into Putin’s Intent.

There are a number of questions to ask. First, why did Obama announce what I assume is a major analytic and covert effort to determine whether the Russians did it? Second, why did the CIA then tell officials that it already had done the deep dive and found evidence of Russian actions? Third, why didn’t the CIA tell the president that there was no need for a deep dive? Fourth, why didn’t the CIA share its information with the FBI? Fifth, how would Trump know there was no Russian effort? Finally, why does Congress want to get into the act? The last is the easiest to answer: cameras.

If all the sound and fury were correct, then either U.S. intelligence detected the attempt or the Russians with their usual clumsiness in these matters had poor operational security – unless they wanted it to become public. The detection of an operation to make Trump president did not hurt Clinton. It could devastate Trump. It was emphasized during the campaign that Russian President Vladimir Putin admired Trump, and vice versa. Given that, it would seem likely the Russians wanted Trump to be president. But of course, if they really wanted him to be president and effective, the last thing they would do is anything that would cast a shadow over him. Hacking Hillary to little effect and allowing U.S. intelligence to get wind of it would be imbecilic.

Whether or not Russian efforts were effective is the one question Democrats have yet to seriously consider (at best), and have taken pains to avoid (at worst). Also left unaddressed by the Left is the fact that the DNC’s digital security was so lax (not something we look for in a Commander-in-Chief and her coterie) that Russia was allowed free access to their servers for months. If Clinton had won, it seems likely as President she’d be the most exposed to Russian intelligence in our history, with the possible exception of if FDR had died a few months sooner and left Henry Wallace in charge.

Then there’s the actual content of the emails, which can hardly be addressed without igniting another intra-party civil war. It’s not a stretch to imagine that the primary purpose of all this sound and fury is to distract rank-and-file Democrats from all the disdain shown for them in Clintonworld.

We also have President Obama’s behavior — the unprecedented and reprehensible act of using America’s intelligence services to discredit his successor. This is small, even for the man who described Hillary Clinton as “likable enough” when they were rivals for the Democrat nomination, and who just can’t help reminding people about all the winning he’s done on the campaign trail.

It’s small and cheap and completely expected from a President who poisoned almost every American institution he touched.