"Not that it affected the outcome of the election..."

[Sparkly]

I keep hearing this as a "but" when pundits and even some Democrats talk about the Russian interference in the election. "There was massive interference, including carefully timed leaks, fake stories and bots -- not that it affected the outcome of the election, but we have to make sure this never, never happens again!"

It's no stretch to think it may well have affected the outcome of the election. Since the Russians were trying to hurt Clinton and help Trump, if she had won, it would be logical to conclude that they were not successful in changing the outcome. But since he won, it's entirely possible -- even probable -- that all the fakery building up the narrative that she's "corrupt" did have an effect where it counted.

I don't understand why this is so easily dismissed as a possibility.

[WhollyHeretic]

1. I was just saying the saying thing the other night

Drives me crazy. Everyone seems to feel the need to say it but it is obviously ridiculous. A fraction of a percent in a few states were enough to swing it. I don't know how many votes it affected but it definitely affected some. With how close it was I think it is almost a certainty that it cost Hillary enough votes to swing the election.

[L. Coyote]

2. 40,000 switched votes and the electoral college outcome is (or was) altered.

[Blanks]

3. It was the coordination...

That was so effective. Rachel Maddow has talked about the bots attacking Hillary on pro-Bernie sites. We saw a lot of that here.

If the smears weren't the same smears, it would have fallen flat, but it's what we've seen from republicans for a long time. There is no evidence that tax cuts for the wealthy stimulate the economy. Yet, it has been repeated so many times that there is a large number of people that believe it to be a fact.

How many times have we heard that Hillary was a weak candidate. Same exact thing. Hillary was a good candidate, but the messaging was consistently repeated until people who don't know shit about politics have heard it so many times that it SEEMS like a fact.

That's how it's done. Coordinate your message, repeat, repeat, repeat, drown out anyone who disagrees, create additional personas to agree with you if necessary. Without the coordination, it's not gonna happen.

It's important that Manafort, Page, and the others who have such strong ties to the Russians stay front and center in the news.

This health care fiasco draws some attention away from it. We need to insist that Trump's agenda (including the Obamacare repeal) be put on hold until the intelligence committees have finished their inquiry.

[librechik]

4. Let's see. Clinton went in to election day 6 points up.

Left election day with an EC loss. How does that happen mathematically without interference? Combined with the popular vote win?

This bears all the marks of a carefully researched exploitation of all our weaknesses. And I am skeptical of the claim that voting machines were not hacked. You mean this time they weren't hacked? How about next time? And how do you know for sure without careful study which would take weeks and hasn't even been ordered yet.

They swore they didn't even look at the topic of whether the hacks affected the outcome, which is so disingenuous and craven to Trump.

Hillary? Who cares about her damages! They stole the election from her, personally. What remedy does she have? Should she seek redress? Or be a nice girl and just keep quiet wile the men decide whose dick is the longest.

This is not the way things work.

[NRaleighLiberal]

5. There are just a lot of people who can't "go there"

[beachbum bob]

6. If it can be proven that a foreign state worked in conjunction with a presidential

campaign to swing the outcome, holy hell would ensue as the supporters of the illegitimate president would never be swayed by truth of facts and the supporters of the legitimate winner would be in an uproar.

sounds familiar?

and congress would be faced with the greatest issue since the civil war.....and we all know how much congress actually wants to do....

until 2018, everything stays the same unless trumps approval rating hits and stays in the 30-32% area for the next year leading up to the mid term elections...then conservatives will be faced with a huge choice....and no good solution for them or their voting block.....