There is an article posted at American Thinker today analyzing what actions some of the people in the world who don’t particularly love us would take if they perceived that America had a weak President. 

We need to look at this in the context of history.  After being judged as weak by Nikita Khrushchev, John Kennedy was faced with the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missle Crisis, and all matter of aggravations by the Russians.  After Carter was judged weak because of the lack of response to the Iranian hostage taking, the Russians invaded Afghanistan.  Remember that as soon as Ronald Reagan was sworn in, the hostages were released.  There was a fear that Reagan would not hesitate to attack to free the hostages.  It really doesn’t matter whether he would have or not, we just needed to have the perception that he would.  During the Clinton years we had Somalia, the Embassy bombings, the first World Trade Center Bombing, and the USS Cole bombing.  When George Bush took office, we had September 11, 2001.  We have not been attacked since.  That is not because the terrorists love George Bush–hardly–they saw what he did and don’t want to pay the price of another attack.  The only way terrorists will attack in a George Bush administration is if they can be sure that we will not be able to retaliate.  That brings up all kinds of scary thoughts.

Anyway, what Joe Biden says is true–a new President will be tested.  How severe that test is will be determined by how strong an image he has projected to our enemies.  If I were a terrorist, I would feel safer attacking a country ruled by Barack Obama than a country ruled by John McCain.  That may or may not be true, but in this game, perception is reality.