Cheney takes aim at president for Putin, Ferguson and more Jimmy Carter can breathe a huge sigh of relief. He’s not the worst president we’ve ever seen — according to Dick Cheney. Instead, the former vice president aimed a loaded shotgun of criticism at the man currently holding office. And his version of the “Thanks, Obama” meme was particularly biting. Fox News chief Washington correspondent James Rosen spent a few days with Cheney, recording almost 10 hours of a chat that was distilled down to run in the April issue of Playboy magazine (a publication in whose pages President Carter, of course, had his own moment in 1976). Rosen asked Cheney about everything from the Middle East to Ferguson and on to Putin. Rosen says that “the Darth Vader caricature of [Cheney] may well prevail” but that his subject himself “genuinely” doesn’t care. Apparently he’s too busy quaffing lattes served up by Gus, his “slender, mustachioed housekeeper,” and remaining “defiantly unchanged.” Despite jumping from topic to topic, much of the discussion focused on one theme: Cheney is not a fan of President Obama’s and is not shy about it. What follows are seven times he ripped the president duringthat lengthy conversation. “I look at Barack Obama and I see the worst president in my lifetime, without question — and that’s saying something. I used to have significant criticism of Jimmy Carter, but compared to Barack Obama and the damage he is doing to the nation — it’s a tragedy, a real tragedy, and we are going to pay a hell of a price just trying to dig out from under his presidency.” “They’re playing the race card, in my view. 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, or that I criticize, Barack Obama or Eric Holder because of race, I just think it’s obviously not true. My view of it is the criticism is merited because of performance — or lack of performance, because of incompetence. It hasn’t got anything to do with race.” “He’s done enormous damage to the military. I think what’s happened to the military in terms of morale, in terms of financing, budget and so forth is just devastating. The way Obama is functioning now, he’s crippling the capacity of future presidents to deal with future crises. It takes a long time to build up that military force. And I am absolutely convinced there will be a future president — two or three times down the road, perhaps — who will be faced with a major crisis and will not have the military capability he needs to deal with it.” http://www.marketwatch.com/story/7-times-dick-cheney-dissed-...