Obama's Last Presser

"To the extent that our political dialogue is such that everything is under suspicion, everybody's corrupt and everybody is doing things for partisan reasons, and all of our institutions are, you know full of malevolent actors, and if that's the story that is being put out there, then when a foreign government introduces that same argument, with facts that are made up, voters who have been listening to that stuff for years, who have been getting that stuff every day from talk radio or other venues, they're going to believe it.

"I'm going to keep on repeating this point, our vulnerability to Russia or any other foreign power is directly related to how divided, partisan, dysfunctional our political process is."

  Real Clear Politics

That sounds to me like he's suggesting the media should get in line with government.

Perhaps he didn't say.

In a session which was also dominated by questions over Syria, the outgoing president said he had “great confidence” in the the intelligence agencies’ assessment “that the Russians carried out this hack”.

  The Guardian

We wouldn't have expected anything else.

He dodged whether Putin personally directed the operations but pointedly noted “not much happens in Russia without Vladimir Putin”.

I know it's a large country, but Putin is practically a god.

The president said that he had told his Russian counterpart in person in September “to cut it out” with regard to hacks to influence the election and added “there were going to be some serious consequences if he did not”.

I bet that scared him.

He concluded that there was no evidence of wrongdoing in the way the election was tallied, adding that “the votes that were cast were counted, they were counted appropriately”.

Yes, dear. I think the casting of the votes might be the main question.

However, turning to the political faultline in the US, he said: “What I worry about – more than anything – is the degree to which, because of the fierceness, because of the partisan battle, you start to see certain folks in the Republican party and Republican voters suddenly finding a government and individuals who stand contrary to everything that we stand for, as being OK, because ‘that’s how much we dislike Democrats’.”

Take a hint, Democrats.

As Obama put it Russia “doesn’t produce anything that anybody wants to buy except oil and gas and arms. They don’t innovate.”

Holy shit, dude. That's what everyone wants. Including us.

However, he warned “they can impact us if we abandon our values. Mr Putin can weaken us just like he’s trying to weaken Europe if we start buying into notions that it’s OK to intimidate the press, or lock up dissidents, or discriminate against people because of their faith or what they look like.”

Jesus Christ. Look in the mirror at all?

This is amazing.

Obama also criticized media coverage of hacked emails from the DNC and Podesta. “This was an obsession that dominated the news coverage,” he said. He asked mournfully how the election “with so many big issues at stake and such a contrast between the candidates came to be dominated by a bunch of these leaks”.

Because the candidates spent so much time sparring and not talking about the big issues?

Obama also used his final press conference of 2016 to criticize the media for its coverage of Hillary Clinton’s emails, insisting “I don’t think she was treated fairly during the election.”

True.  But we won't.  We are neither that insightful or self-reflective.  And most of us probably have no idea what our country does to influence others elections.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.