We were better off anyway when we knew who the real enemy was and they thought of us as still potent.
The fact they think us toothless, IMHO, accounts for all the stroking we got in advance of the election and with the indulgence that was asking the Pope's opinion in advance of the inevitable ESCR decision.
I don't remember Bush's leaving his audience with the Pope and announcing (as he did after a meeting with the Log Cabin Republicans) that he felt he was "a better man" for the conversation.
This could explain why the homosexuality (and otherwise "enlightened" approach to all things sexual) is not a factor in the Catholic or Condit sex scandals and politicians still feel perfectly comfortable not only appointing open homosexuals (as did Clinton) but appointing them specifically because they are homosexual, as has Bush.