Economy over foreign policy

In spite of Obama's foreign policy success, people seem unmoved in light of the economic situation. New Yorker editor David Remnick considers the effect of Gaddafi's death on the public's perception of the President:

Yet there’s something strange about the backseat status often given to foreign policy in Presidential campaigns. Presidents have a great deal more sway over the matters of war, peace, and diplomacy than they have over the economic weather. (Globalism and the House of Representatives make sure of that.) Even stranger is the lack of attention given to foreign affairs by the candidates themselves.

The leading Republican candidate (for the moment) is Herman Cain, and so far he has displayed what can only be called an uncertain grasp of worldly matters. He recently declared that knowing the name of the leader of “Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan” was of no interest to him and he saw no reason why it should be. (As it happens, Islam Karimov, the bloody-minded leader of Uzbekistan, is an especially important dictator in a region, Central Asia, that is of vital interest to the United States.) Rick Perry is similarly, and smugly, detached. When it comes to world affairs, his most notable proposal is to defund the United Nations.