Obama Admin knew of Russian Hacking over 1 year ago - yet hid it

In a blog post titled 'O Ye of Little Faith' RICHARD FERNANDEZ, referencing Business Week and Washington Times reports shows the Obama administration knew over a year ago that the Russians were attempting to hack systems related to California's Primary presidential election, not so much to change results but to deligitimize the entire process through some voter registration changes. But like everyone else, the Obama Administration 'knew' Hilary was going to win, so kept this knowledge quiet. I highly recommend Richard's blog after following it for more than 15 years, back when he called himself 'Wretchard', as am I. Here's what he wrote:

In the event Russia failed to alter the vote count in significant ways but they nevertheless succeeded at achieving what [Riverside County CA District Attorney Michael] Hestrin feared: convincing significant numbers of Americans to lose confidence in the elections...

No one thinks fraud out of the ordinary when committed by the usual suspects. What was unthinkable to both Republicans and Democrats was that Russians would join the fun. The significance of Hillary's email server as an archetype has been obscured by the focus on Clinton herself, which blinded most pundits to the fact it was similar to many systems even less secure than hers through which the smoke filled business of American politics flowed. In retrospect it was obvious that the Russians might try to slip in through the back gate left unlatched for the boys both because that's where the action was and the locks were weakest.

Putin probably counted on American politicians being powerless to stop him without jeopardizing the secret panel and trap door house of electoral mysteries that was their own portal to power. Even after being alerted to the danger Obama tried to keep the Kremlin's activity as quiet as he could. "In the months leading up to the election, Obama’s administration would routinely discuss the hacking situation but tried to keep the intelligence as quiet as possible — even Vice President Joe Biden was not informed until much later." He fretted, even "pondered deploying armed federal agents to polling places last November to counter any potential cyberattacks targeting the U.S. election system ... [said] the 15-page plan ... drafted by the White House last October and obtained by Time magazine."

But in the end he did nothing, held back by the assumption Hillary would win. "'It is the hardest thing about my entire time in government to defend,' said a former senior Obama administration official involved in White House deliberations on Russia," in a Washington Post article. "'I feel like we sort of choked.' ... The assumption that Clinton would win contributed to the lack of urgency." After all there was no sense discrediting an election Hillary Clinton had in the bag thereby undermining her presidency. Thus was Obama caught in a Monkey Trap. Like the animal of the story, the former president only escape by letting the Hillary go. Instead he clung to Hillary until the election ended only to open his fist and find -- Trump.