Doesn't it increasingly seem like trump was "placed" into office?

[haele]

38. Would Pres. Obama know that Comey's moral kryptonite would be the name Clinton?

After Whitewater, Comey apparently did his job well enough to go up the ladder, and by his record, seemed to be a qualified choice that would fit in with the Holder/Lynch Justice Department.
That's all Pres. Obama cared about. That, and Obama's Communitarian philosophy in governance that is all about wanting to seem to be even handed (the best for everyone) and "reaching across the aisle" to find solutions. Most people respect their jobs more than they act on their emotions, so if Comey did not have a record for acting like the typical over-emotional thin skinned authoritarian, there would be no reason for Pres. Obama not to appoint him, if he could get him through Congress.

Comey didn't start coming up on the public radar and pulling his obvious shit until Hillary Clinton won the Democratic primary. And if there are no links between Comey and the Russians
So, from Obama's viewpoint, before the White House realized Comey was more of a petulant 5-year old than they expected from a Republican, firing Comey wouldn't seem like political favoritism. But after he had imploded over the idea that another hated Clinton would actually be President again, it would seem a critical political error - one show of favoritism to inflame the opposition and encourage more Republicans to turn out. So the longer it dragged on, the worse it was.

Remember, the Obama administration was looking into Russian hacking and Comey was sufficiently proactive with pushing for investigation on that front. The email issue seemed at the time to have been an investigation pushed by Congress - up until the time it wasn't. By that time it was strategically too late to actually get rid of Comey; all they could do was recommend he recuse himself. Which he didn't.
And it certainly didn't help that Bill Clinton went over to visit with the AG on the tarmac back in July/August while the election was underway.

Haele