If you actually ask yourself what was the purpose of the trip, it was not to please foreigners. It was to send messages to key constituents in the United States including evangelicals who support Israel and patriotic people who hate Barack Obama and so forth. -Paul Glastris

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Israel is the country Mitt Romney says he'll visit first if elected president, in direct contrast to Barack Obama, who did not visit Israel in his first term, although, like Romney, he did so as candidate Obama in 2008. Romney meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who he has been friendly with since 1976, when both worked for the Boston Consulting Group as corporate advisers. Then on to Poland, meeting with Prime Minister Donald Tusk, and later Polish icon Lech Walesa. Poland has agreed to accommodate part of a U.S. missile defense system, one that has raised Russian hackles. Last March, four months ago, during the GOP primary, Romney called Russia the U.S., quote-unquote number one geopolitical foe.