People seem obsessed with our "image."
It's easy to get everybody to think you're a swell guy. Just do whatever the hell they want you to do. Gee, isn't that how you get popular in high school?
Same for foreign policy. For example, a president could get amazing poll ratings in most of the Middle East simply by throwing Israel under the bus.
Remember: "Liked" and "respected" are not the same thing at all.
As I've pointed out before, if you have negotiations with an adversary and he's grinning widely as you leave, this is not necessarily a good thing.