In a preview of campaign refrains to come, prominent conservatives are saying President Obama’s foreign policy is hurting our allies and helping our enemies.

The “Obama as Carter” motif dominated the conservative Foreign Policy Institute’s annual conference, held in Washington Monday and Tuesday, with GOP headliners making unflattering comparisons to the 39th president to warn of a decline in U.S. international standing.

Obama’s stance on the presidential crisis in Honduras, willingness to engage Iran in nuclear talks and decision to scrap the Bush administration’s missile defense plans in Eastern Europe were popular targets.

“I think the president is communicating he is a reluctant and timid defender of freedom  . . .  time and time again,” said former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a 2008 Republican presidential contender and a leading potential candidate in 2012.

“Neutrality has an inevitable corollary  . . .  you draw more close to your foes and create distances from your friends,” Romney said.

Speakers were nearly unanimous in criticizing Obama’s recently espoused skepticism about a troop build-up in Afghanistan.

“We are in the second Carter administration,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga. (1979-99). “Obama is dangerously close to the ‘malaise’ speech,’” referring to Carter’s 1979 speech in which he described a national “crisis of confidence.”

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl , R-Ariz., said reversing plans to guard against intercontinental ballistic missiles with interceptors and radar in Poland and the Czech Republic projected weakness to Russia and Iran.

“Conceding to Russian demands in Eastern Europe is hardly the way to convince Iran we’re serious” about the consequences of failed nuclear talks, Kyl said.

And, he said “we did everything wrong if we wanted to send a signal that [Russia] shouldn’t even think about extending influence over our NATO allies.”

Kyl also said that he would be willing to support a renegotiated Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with cuts in the U.S. nuclear arsenal if the administration agreed to “modernize” the remaining stockpile and ensure its reliability.

But on ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, another pillar of Obama’s nonproliferation strategy, Kyl said he wouldn’t budge.

“I will lead the charge against it and I will do everything in my power to see that it is defeated,” he said. That’s no empty threat from Kyl, who led the successful opposition to ratification when the treaty was brought to the Senate in 1999.