The media have pointed the finger at the Russians as the villains behind the hacking of Hillary’s email system and those of the Democratic National Committee.  There have been differences of opinions regarding the true culprits, but it serves the White House and Democrats to blame Putin and suggest it was done to help Donald Trump win.  Leaks have come from the administration that the Russians were at fault, but professionals in the intelligence agencies have differed.  The strategy has been clear – to make the election of Donald Trump appear to be illegitimate.

There is another example of this tactic at work.

Today’s Wall Street Journal column – “Republican National Committee Security Foiled Russian Hackers:  Investigation calls it a less aggressive and much less persistent effort than the hacks of the Democratic National Committee” – may lead some readers to believe that the Russian hackers – again, there is some skepticism that the hackers were Russian (let alone tied to Putin) – were more interested in targeting Hillary Clinton and Democrats rather than Trump and Republicans.

There is a far more valid explanation behind the disparate treatment.

The actual column nods towards this possibility:

Russian hackers tried to penetrate the computer networks of the Republican National Committee, using the same techniques that allowed them to infiltrate its Democratic counterpart, according to U.S. officials who have been briefed on the attempted intrusion.

But the intruders failed to get past security defenses on the RNC’s computer networks, the officials said. And people close to the investigation said it indicated a less aggressive and much less persistent effort by Russian intelligence to hack the Republican group than the Democratic National Committee. Only a single email account linked to a long-departed RNC staffer was targeted.

There is a principle called Occam’s Razor that holds that the simplest explanation behind an occurrence is usually the correct one.

In this case, it is clear the Republicans and Donald Trump just had better internet security than the Democrats and their presidential nominee.  This may shock all the liberals who consider Republicans as being prehistoric (Tom Friedman just called Trumps’ cabinet picks “prehistoric”) and “ignoramuses,” but the Republicans have long had a very sophisticated technological and data-mining operation.  Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, has been deservedly given a great deal of credit for running a leading-edge campaign that helped propel Trump into the Oval Office.  

The GOP certainly did not keep vital data and emails on a home-brewed server in one of the many bathrooms at the Clinton’s estate in Chappaqua.

If one accepts for the sake of argument that the Russians were behind the hacking, why would they give a pass to Trump?  Putin is the former head of the KGB.  He is shrewd and crafty.  He would want a hedge against an American president.  He would try to gain information to pressure any president.  Therefore, he would be likely to target both the Democrat and Republican nominees.

In this case, the hackers gave up.  They had met their match with the Republicans.

Clinton and the Democrats were just too prehistoric and were too ignorant compared to the Republicans.