Ok, rhetoric aside, it is not clear to me that Constellation program is (was) scientifically sound (the original idea of placing a capsule on the top of Shuttle's booster did not quite work out due to issues with vibrations). Base on the Moon was a part of the Constellation program. I liked the base on the Moon idea.
IMHO, cancellation of the Constellation program will not put us behind Russia and China, who still rely of the 60-s technology to put people in space. Outreach activity of NASA is small peanuts comparted to everything else, so it should not be a basis of the outrage over Obama or NASA.
ISS should have been dumped long time ago. There is no science (or anything else) there anymore.