I’m the first to admit I’m the last to give props to folks I despise, but you’ve got to hand it to Vladimir Putin – the guy is a freaking genius.

The chaos, the confusion, the divisiveness, the fumbling bumbling that is our government right now, it’s all turned out better than he ever could have dreamed.

Apparently, Putin could not have handpicked a better agent than Rosey Old Donald.

The argument is no longer whether Russia interfered with our presidential election last year, as evidenced by the evolving positions of Putin’s favorite American candidate. Initially, Chicken Liar tried to argue it was someone besides the Russians who hacked and leaked e-mails during the campaign.

Then he claimed Russia’s interference played no role in his victory.

Now all you hear him say is, “There was no collusion.” I’m pretty sure he doesn’t know what the term means, but we’ll get to that in a moment.

What people really need to think about is what Putin sought to gain from his efforts.

It’s pretty clear why he didn’t want Hillary Clinton as an adversary in the White House. Yeah, she isn’t the greatest campaigner in the world, but she’s smart and she’s tough, and she sees Putin for who he is and who he wants to be – the big kid on the block. She would not have put up with his shenanigans.

Then along came Chicken Liar. Imagine how Putin’s eyes must have lit up when he first saw the billionaire buffoon among the field of GOP candidates. How he must have turned to his henchmen and said, “Hey, you know what would be fun…?”

In the classic movie The Manchurian Candidate – the black-and-white 1962 version, not the remake with Denzel Washington – the guy played by Laurence Harvey is brainwashed by Commies and planted thru an intricate scheme to disrupt the highest level of U.S. government.

Fortunately for Putin, the real-life scenario was much less complicated. In this instance, some simple ego-stroking produced similar spectacular results.

Our president has insisted repeatedly there was no collusion between his campaign and the Russian government.

Having observed how his mind works, I’m convinced he means he never met with Putin on a New Jersey dock to switch briefcases in the dead of night. And I’m willing to concede this point – I doubt even Chicken Liar is stupid enough to be that overt.

I won’t delve into the legal aspects of the term, but according to Merriam-Webster, “collusion” is defined as “secret agreement or cooperation especially for an illegal or deceitful purpose.”

It will be pretty hard for anyone with common sense to claim Chicken Liar was not cooperating when he publicly egged on hacking efforts time and again during the campaign. And thanks to the miracle of You Tube, the evidence is there for the world to see.

“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing,” he said last July, referring to Clinton’s deleted e-mails. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”

Even then, former CIA director Leon Panetta charged the GOP nominee with “in fact asking the Russians to engage in American politics.”

Toward the end of the campaign, according to ThinkProgress, Chicken Liar referred to Wikileaks an amazing 164 times – over a single month-long period. Wikileaks, for those who haven’t heard, is the organ officials believe may have been used by Russia to dispense its stolen information, a theory which had been widely reported by then.

“One of the big advantages of me having a rather large microphone … is that I can talk about Wikileaks,” he said in October.

“Wikileaks is amazing,” he added on another occasion. “The stuff that’s coming out, it shows (Clinton’s) a real liar.”

“Wikileaks. I love Wikileaks,” he exclaimed at another event.

He openly encouraged this illegal activity, and he benefited from it. Hard to dispute there was cooperation there.

The candidate and Putin also continued to heap praise on one another throughout the campaign, Putin calling his puppet “the absolute leader of the presidential race” back in December 2015.

So now here we are. In Russia’s corner sits a judo-chopping former KGB mastermind who has basically ruled his country for the past 18 years; and in our corner sits a media clown who can’t even rule himself.

Putin seems downright statesmanlike on the world stage now, compared to America’s president. At the recent One Belt One Road summit in Beijing, it was the Russian thug who came across as the voice of reason in dealing with North Korea, urging all parties to “find peaceful solutions.”

In contrast to the American president who had to be chided by China’s Foreign Ministry to “avoid remarks and actions to escalate the situation.”

At the same gathering of world leaders, Putin was filmed playing the piano for an impromptu recital, casting himself as a Renaissance man of culture and sensitivity; in contrast to the American president who only bangs the keys when he wants to send out another crazed Twitter rant.

Meanwhile, take a look at the images of our president from this week’s summit in Europe. Nuff said.

At home, the U.S. Constitution itself is threatened, as our own chief executive attempts to knock down the pillars of the greatest form of government ever created.

He’s tried to undermine the judicial branch, subvert the legislative branch, made a mockery of the executive branch and referred to the Fourth Estate – the media – as the “enemy of the American people.” (Borrowing a term used by Stalin to rule the former Soviet Union.)

And while Chicken Liar insisted during the campaign Putin would “respect” him as president, Russian ships and jets have openly poked and prodded our defenses since his inauguration.

It calls to mind Muhammad Ali sticking out his gloved fist and resting it on his opponent’s nose in the middle of the ring, taunting and embarrassing the poor lug he was about to demolish.

These are no doubt the glory days Putin envisioned when he decided to endorse his Manchurian Idiot for President of the United States. The man clearly knew what he’s doing.

(May 27, 2017)