If you can think back this far, the U.S. populace was down on George W. Bush this time eight years ago in part because he supposedly had alienated our allies by being a go-it-alone cowboy. The remedy for this was to elect the cool guy who gave speeches about how we all have to listen to each other and all that sort of thing.
We did find out, did we not, that there is a huge difference between saying something in a speech and actually doing it? Today America's allies would surely love to have Bush back, since despite what you heard from the media, he did not insult them nor did he disregard their concerns.