There may be nothing more annoying than pundits and talking heads pointing to public opinion polls in order to justify questionable foreign policy decisions, which many liberals are trying to do by saying Obama's seemingly flawed policies are really just him giving the people what they want. Saying a president needs to curry public support when it comes to policy and that the public's opinion matters are two entirely different things - the former makes sense and is pragmatic, the latter is meaningless and a recipe for disaster. The average voter is completely ignorant when it comes to foreign policy questions - they may have feelings which can vaguely approximate notions regarding foreign policy and those notions can often be more or less accurate - but overwhelmingly the average voter has close to zero relevant understanding of the intricacies of foreign policy and therefore seeking out or being guided by their opinion would be about as daffy as a CEO asking the car park attendant for business advice or the surgeon asking the orderly how to go about removing a spleen. Support and guidance are two entirely separate things - the wise president will figure out a way to earn the former, but when it comes to the latter he or she is on their own. It may seem somewhat undemocratic, but when it comes to foreign policy the people by and large only get a say after the decisions have been made and results become evident and open to judgement - which is why it's so important for voters to get an accurate sense of how a candidate might act given a crisis and why it's not unreasonable to blame the media more than Obama for his foreign policy malpractice since it's the media that created and nurtured the illusion [or outright lie] of Obama as some brilliant operator whose understanding of just about everything under the sun was beyond reproach - this is why I say the real scandal of Benghazi was the left wing media's complicity in covering it up - the flawed logic and misguided preconceptions under girding Obama's foreign policy thinking were all in essence on display with Libya and Benghazi, and the media conspired with Obama to keep the truth safely hidden away - which is why no one should be surprised by how badly things are going right now.
