Much Ado About Putin

Many on all sides have been highly critical of President Trump for not being sufficiently rough and tough on Vladimir Putin in their post summit press conference in Helsinki, Finland. While Trump expressed confidence in the US intelligence community, he also said that Putin gave a "strong and powerful" denial of any Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election. Trump went on to say he did not "see any reason why" Russia would be behind any meddling in our election. Trump went on to say there was no collusion with Russia in the 2016 election.

Here's George Bush in 2001: "I looked the man (Putin) in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. We had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul." Respectfully to former President Bush - that was moronic.

In 2009, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, presented Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, with a "reset" button. So, Democrats can make nice with Russia, and try to reset relations between the two countries, but not Republicans? Then, we have Obama telling Medvedev (unbeknownst to Obama he was caught on an open mic): "On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved, but it's important for him to give me space...This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility." Medvedev: "I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir (Putin)." Maybe that "flexibility" encouraged Putin enough to take the Crimea and invade eastern Ukraine. Was there, shhh, collusion between Obama and Putin?

Let us not forget the 2012 debate between Obama and Romney. Recall that Obama mocked Romney for claiming that Russia was our biggest geopolitical threat. Obama: "The 1980s are now calling to ask for their policy back because the Cold War's been over for 20 years." Uh-oh. Did Putin have something on Obama? Between this and the "flexibility" comment, I'm very suspicious.

At the time of the 2016 election, Obama was President, Loretta Lynch was the Attorney General, James Comey was the Director of the FBI, and John Brennan was the CIA Director. Surely, 2016 was not the first year Russia tried to interfere in our elections. Surely, Obama and his Administration were on the lookout for Russian cyber attacks during the election, and took the threat very seriously. So how is it that in October, 2016, only one month before the election, Obama said that there's "no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America's elections." So, no collusion could affect the outcome of an election...until Trump upset Clinton and then...collusion!

But one President got it right, calling the Soviet Union the "evil empire." That, of course, was Ronald Reagan, who was highly criticized for daring to make such a comment. Reagan was called a "warmonger." I am confused. Reagan was a warmonger, but Bush and Obama were just trying to make nice with Putin and his evil empire?

Would I have preferred some tougher talk at the press conference? Probably, but I don't know what was discussed privately. It appears Trump sought assurances about the safety of Israel with regards to all the parties fighting in Syria. What else was discussed? And didn't the media claim that Trump just getting us into nuclear war when he talked tough to "little rocket man?" Let's be honest. Trump can never win. And, if he did cave in to Putin, he clearly would not be the first President to do so. Just the most highly criticized - along with Reagan, the too tough talking warmonger. No wonder I'm confused.