Whenever Obama undercuts an American friend (often by trying to make friends with people who are never going to become American allies, like Hugo Chavez) everyone is watching. North Korea? Does Japan really expect Obama to back them up if push comes to shove? Do we really want to see Japan re-arming itself for effective offensive operations? Does Taiwan trust Obama to back them up against China? Worse still if China decides that the Americans wouldn't help. Do we really want to see a serious cross-straits crisis? If Israel concludes it can't rely on USA, then they have no other choice than to take action into their own hands. Russia very clearly believes that USA is an unreliable ally ... so Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine, Georgia, etc. ... the list of countries that ought to be nervous is too long to list. This is worse than stupid, and the consequences will last much longer than the term of a single president. Even if USA gets a decent president, other powers will remember that this means nothing because sooner or later there'll be another Carter-Obama, and they'll get sold down the river. Better to make alliances with less pleasant but more reliable partners than to tie yourself to USA for a decade or two until the inevitable betrayal.