Doug, you have outdone yourself in your embrace of Clinton-camp denialism.

“President out of step with the democratic world and the Russian President who may have engineered his election victory”

“and therefore was nearly single-handedly responsible for Mr. Trump’s election victory, was the looming backdrop to this meeting, the source of its tension.”

“ of his mastery and authorship of the Trump phenomenon”

Because Clinton's email scandals, her "basket of deplorables, her arrogant "why am I not 50 points ahead", her refusal to campaign in Wisconsin, her failure to carry Obama's constituency, and her basic inability to connect with voters had nothing to do with her loss.  It was the leak of Podesta's DNC emails - which were a curiosity to about 3% of the electorate - which may or may not have been orchestrated by Putin.  I certainly have not seen the evidence.

Won't disagree with you that Trump has a bizarre fetish with Putin, but you have completely lost it with this column.