Critics have called former Vice President Dick Cheney a lot of things over the years, but they’ve never accused him of keeping his thoughts to himself. In the new issue of Playboy, Cheney sits down for an interview and proves that he still has plenty to say about the current administration. Calling Barack Obama “the worst president of my lifetime,” Cheney went on a tear, launching criticisms against the president that are too accurate to be dismissed.
Lobbing bombs from the outset, Cheney accused Obama and his attorney general Eric Holder of playing the race card when deflecting criticism:
Certainly, we haven’t given up – nor should we give up – the right to criticize an administration and public officials. To say that we criticize Barack Obama or Eric Holder because of race, I just think it’s obviously not true.
With that, he went on to make abundant use of his right to criticize, saying that Obama should have spoken out in Officer Darren Wilson’s defense instead of fueling the ignorance surrounding the Ferguson incident. “I don’t think it is about race. I think it is about an individual who conducted himself in a manner that was almost guaranteed to provoke an officer trying to do his duty.”
Cheney also had something to say about the way Obama has destroyed the Bush legacy – “I think with respect to the situation in Iraq, his precipitous withdrawal and refusal to leave any stay-behind forces was a huge mistake.
He took issue with Obama’s policies regarding American energy, saying he “is doing everything he can to shut down the coal industry.”
Finally, he said that Obama was “not part of the consensus that has governed Republican and Democratic administrations alike since Harry Truman’s day…there’s been a basic fundamental belief since the end of World War II that United States leadership in the world produces a far more peaceful, less hostile world and greater prosperity. And it’s going to take a lot to rebuild the damage that has been done over the past few years, because we’ve actively conveyed to the world the notion that we no longer believe that.”
Harsh words, perhaps, but who can argue with their substance? The only rebuttal is to argue that Obama’s form of governing is superior to Cheney’s, but you wouldn’t be able to find many facts to support your case. Was the Bush administration flawless? Certainly not, but he was a president faced with extraordinary circumstances. Never had our nation been attacked with such brazenness. Were mistakes made? Arguably, yes, but it’s a piece of cake to judge these things in hindsight.
It’s equally easy to see that Obama – faced with far less trying circumstances – is leading our country down a disastrous path. If we can see so clearly how awful his policies are for the U.S. right now, how much worse will they seem a decade down the line? When we really see their long-term effects?
He promised change, and that’s exactly what we got. If a few of us pine for the old America, don’t hold it against us. We thought we had a pretty good thing going for 200 years. You know, something to be proud of. It wasn’t perfect; it was only the greatest country ever to exist in thousands of years of recorded history. If we continue to follow the Obama plan, will we be able to say the same thing in a few years?
Can we now?
