Like Kevin McCarthy, Putin Wants to Bring Down Hillary's Poll Numbers

The Berners are using the DNC leaks to gain concessions with just a day before the Dem convention starts.

They got a pound of flesh in barring Debbie Wasserman-Schultz from having a major speaking role at the convention.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/dnc-chair-debbie-wasserman-schultz-not-speak-convention-article-1.2723552

This is wrong as nothing in these leaks shows Ms. Wasserman-Schultz to have done anything wrong. But this has never been about reality with the Berners but sour grapes over losing the election.

Now they get their pound of flesh in taking down Wasserman-Schultz who has done such great work for the Democratic party.

Ok, I'm not happy about this. But the good news is this seems to have mollified Bernie and friends. What's important is that the Dems showcase the huge contrast between us and the gruesome Hitler Youth convention we saw last week in Cleveland.

Here is what Jason Taylor is saying over at the Insurgent. Yes that's a conservative site.

"After the trauma inflicted on the nation by the GOP — I mean the Party of Trump — four day hate orgy, I welcome Hillary’s boring VP choice and hope the Democratic four day convention is at least that boring as well. It will be a relief and the contrast will make Hillary, Kaine and the Democrats look incredibly good — even if boring — after the last four depressing days of nonsensical anger."

http://theresurgent.com/donald-trump-is-in-trouble/

HT: Tom Brown

So we don't want anything to overshadow this contrast that even conservatives like Taylor are welcoming.

Still, we also need to step back and ask: why is Putin trying to put his finger on the scales against Hilary Clinton? The timing was clearly meant to throw a monkey wrench into Dem unity.

It looks to have failed as the issue was resolved yesterday. But this should tell you what the stakes are in this election.

A vote for Trump is a vote to make Vladimir Putin great again.

"Outraged Sanders supporters might also keep in mind that the Wikileaks email dump is almost certainly a favor to Donald Trump from the Russian government, even if Wikileaks wasn’t directly involved. What we’ve already learned about the Trump-Putin connection would have been enough to force a presidential candidate to step aside in past election cycles. Now no one seems to care."

https://dankennedy.net/2016/07/23/the-wikileaks-dnc-email-dump-is-putins-latest-gift-to-trump/

"You never see Putin hacking the RNC do you?

"Putin’s Puppet."

"If the Russian president could design a candidate to undermine American interests—and advance his own—he’d look a lot like Donald Trump."

"Yesterday, Donald Trump told the New York Times that he would not necessarily come to the aid of NATO states threatened by Russia and would make his decision to defend them from an attack after reviewing whether they “have fulfilled their obligations to us.” It was the latest statement from Trump that was likely greeted with delight in the Kremlin. Earlier this month, Franklin Foer wrote on the frightening ways in which Trump seems to be playing right into Vladimir Putin's plans for destabilizing the West.​"

"Vladimir Putin has a plan for destroying the West—and that plan looks a lot like Donald Trump. Over the past decade, Russia has boosted right-wing populistsacross Europe. It loaned money to Marine Le Pen in France, well-documentedtransfusions of cash to keep her presidential campaign alive. Such largesse also wended its way to the former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, who profited“personally and handsomely” from Russian energy deals, as an American ambassador to Rome once put it. (Berlusconi also shared a 240-year-old bottle of Crimean wine with Putin and apparently makes ample use of a bed gifted to him by the Russian president.)"

"There’s a clear pattern: Putin runs stealth efforts on behalf of politicians who rail against the European Union and want to push away from NATO. He’s been a patron of Golden Dawn in Greece, Ataka in Bulgaria, and Jobbik in Hungary. Joe Bidenwarned about this effort last year in a speech at the Brookings Institution: “President Putin sees such political forces as useful tools to be manipulated, to create cracks in the European body politic which he can then exploit.” Ruptures that will likely multiply after Brexit—a campaign Russia’s many propaganda organs bombastically promoted."

"Donald Trump is like the Kremlin’s favored candidates, only more so. He celebrated the United Kingdom’s exit from the EU. He denounces NATO with feeling. He is also a great admirer of Vladimir Putin. Trump’s devotion to the Russian president has been portrayed as buffoonish enthusiasm for a fellow macho strongman. But Trump’s statements of praise amount to something closer to slavish devotion. In 2007, he praised Putin for “rebuilding Russia.”

A year later he added, “He does his work well. Much better than our Bush.” When Putin ripped American exceptionalism in a New York Times op-ed in 2013, Trump called it “a masterpiece.” Despite ample evidence, Trump denies that Putin has assassinated his opponents: “In all fairness to Putin, you’re saying he killed people. I haven’t seen that.” In the event that such killings have transpired, they can be forgiven: “At least he’s a leader.” And not just any old head of state: “I will tell you that, in terms of leadership, he’s getting an A.”

"That’s a highly abridged sampling of Trump’s odes to Putin. Why wouldn’t the Russians offer him the same furtive assistance they’ve lavished on Le Pen, Berlusconi, and the rest? Indeed, according to Politico’s Michael Crowley, Russian propaganda has gone full throttle for Trump, using its Russia Todayapparatus to thrash Hillary Clinton and hail the courage of Trump’s foreign policy. (Sample headline: “Trump Sparks NATO Debate: ‘Obsolete’ or ‘Tripwire That Could Lead to World War III.’ ”) Russian intelligence services hacked the Democratic National Committee’s servers, purloining its opposition research files on Trump and just about everything else it could find. They also wormed their way into the computers of the Clinton Foundation, a breach reported by Bloomberg. And though it may be a mere coincidence, Trump’s inner circle is populated with advisers and operatives who have long careers advancing the interests of the Kremlin."

"We shouldn’t overstate Putin’s efforts, which will hardly determine the outcome of the election. Still, we should think of the Trump campaign as the moral equivalent of Henry Wallace’s communist-infiltrated campaign for president in 1948, albeit less sincere and idealistic than that. A foreign power that wishes ill upon the United States has attached itself to a major presidential campaign."

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/07/vladimir_putin_has_a_plan_for_destroying_the_west_and_it_looks_a_lot_like.html

If there was ever a time to keep an eye on the prize, this is it.