CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Obama presidency was supposed to revive America’s image in the eyes of the world, but results on that score have been mixed at best. Recent blunders show the White House struggling to manage relationships with our closest allies.

Speaking in the coal-producing Australian state of Queensland earlier this month during the G-20 Brisbane economic summit, Obama made what Greg Sheriden, foreign editor of The Australian, called “a bizarre decision to attack and damage his closest ally in Asia, and one of the most committed supporters of U.S. foreign policy.”

According to Sheriden, “the longest passage was an extraordinary riff on climate change that contained astonishing criticism — implied, but unmistakable — of the government led by Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.” Obama congratulated himself for signing a climate change agreement with China and urged Australia to take similar measures, repeatedly invoking the threat he says global warming poses to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Prime Minister Abbott is a moderate conservative who has been an unflagging supporter of American strategic interests in Asia and the Middle East. On environmental issues, Abbott believes that climate change is a problem, and he has maintained his more liberal predecessor’s commitment to cut Australia’s carbon emissions.

But Abbot also kept a campaign promise to repeal an unpopular carbon tax…