Did the IRS Influence the 2012 Election?

Well, it certainly influenced it, that was the whole point after all, but was it enough to change any electoral votes? 

PRESS: So, Lauren, you've been covering this IRS scandal. How big is it really? How serious is it really, do you think?

FRENCH: I think it's really serious, depending on the groups that were targeted, you could say that this easily influenced the 2012 election. A lot of these groups' applications were delayed to the point that they weren't able to get their tax-exempt status until after the election and depending ...

PRESS (interrupting): Do you really believe that?

FRENCH: I think that you should be able to, if you are following the rules, partake in the political process and the IRS and the government shouldn't hold you back. I think that that's a very fair way to look at this. So, whether or not these groups were going to spend a lot of money or really be the top five of these non-profit groups is a different matter. A lot of these groups actually are really small, but if they have the right, they have the legal right to partake in the election and they should be allowed to. And I think it depends, really, I mean, we're seeing kind of a drip-drop out of the White House and out of the IRS of who knew what and when, which is something I have been covering, of when was Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin first told. And as of right now, all we know is that neither the Obama administration or the White House or the Treasury, no one knew before 2013 about the results of this audit. But if we find out that key administration people outside of the IRS knew about it, that's going to have a significant effect on this scandal. It's going to turn it into a whole different direction.

So I think next election we need to rig the IRS rules to favor conservatives, just to even the playing field. Just as "Affirmative Action" was necessary to overcome the results of racial discrimination, affirmative political action is necessary of overcome the innate bias of the federal bureaucracy against conservatives.

Also; do the 2012 election results require an asterisk?

The executive branch of our government is topped by the president. The IRS, which answers to his chosen appointee at the Department of the Treasury, abused his critics and opponents, up to and through a mid-term he and his party lost, and through a close re-election that he ultimately won. We may have to put an asterisk after that, though: It’s possible now to assert, based on the evidence, that the IRS helped him win. Just as performance-enhancing steroids helped a generation of baseball players crank home runs they may not have hit without the drugs, the IRS may have been Barack Obama’s electoral performance-enhancing agency and helped him win an election he otherwise may have lost.