Stratfor is very premature with their prediction of the next U.S. president (and the reasoning dismissing the Democrats is both brief and flawed), but they are quite right in remarking that foreign governments are already hedging their bets and preparing for several outcomes. The word is that the possible election of Sen. John McCain would impact Russia above all others:

The deepest impact would be felt in Russia and Iran. McCain has become rather famous in Russia for saying that all he saw when he looked into Putin’s eyes were three letters: K, G and B. And Iran is more than a touch nervous about McCain’s assertion that the United States needs to think of its Iraq deployment in a manner similar to that of Germany or South Korea — a decades-long commitment.