(AP).Liz Cheney kicked off the Southern Republican Leadership Conference here Thursday night with a direct and unapologetic speech attacking President Obama for his health care push, intelligence posture and foreign policy.
Cheney told the roughly 3,500 conservative activists and donors gathered for the conference that there are three prongs to the president's foreign policy: "apologize for America, abandon our allies and appease our enemies."
"The Obama administration is putting us on the path to decline," added Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney.
She criticized the administration for the "shabby reception" given Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visited Washington recently, which she deemed "disgraceful."
"President Obama is playing a reckless game if he continues down the path of diminishing the United States' ties to Israel," she said, deeming the world safer when there is "no daylight" between the two countries.
Cheney criticized the administration for expressing concerns about Afghan president Hamid Karzai, and not categorically casting the Afghan leader as an ally. The posture, she said, marked a "dangerous and juvenile display."
On Iran, she deemed the president's deadlines "meaningless" and his speeches "pointless." She said that Mr. Obama's response to the protests following that country's election suggested he was "much more concerned about whether the mullahs in Iran would be offended by his actions."
Threats of "watered down sanctions," she added, are just "buying time for the Iranians" to increase their capacity to attack.
She said Mr. Obama's recently-unveiled nuclear policy displayed his "naivete about his views about America's enemies," because it sent those enemies the message that America would not strike back when attacked.
"President Obama, stop apologizing for this great nation and start defending it," she said.
Cheney told the roughly 3,500 conservative activists and donors gathered for the conference that there are three prongs to the president's foreign policy: "apologize for America, abandon our allies and appease our enemies."
"The Obama administration is putting us on the path to decline," added Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney.
She criticized the administration for the "shabby reception" given Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visited Washington recently, which she deemed "disgraceful."
"President Obama is playing a reckless game if he continues down the path of diminishing the United States' ties to Israel," she said, deeming the world safer when there is "no daylight" between the two countries.
Cheney criticized the administration for expressing concerns about Afghan president Hamid Karzai, and not categorically casting the Afghan leader as an ally. The posture, she said, marked a "dangerous and juvenile display."
On Iran, she deemed the president's deadlines "meaningless" and his speeches "pointless." She said that Mr. Obama's response to the protests following that country's election suggested he was "much more concerned about whether the mullahs in Iran would be offended by his actions."
Threats of "watered down sanctions," she added, are just "buying time for the Iranians" to increase their capacity to attack.
She said Mr. Obama's recently-unveiled nuclear policy displayed his "naivete about his views about America's enemies," because it sent those enemies the message that America would not strike back when attacked.
"President Obama, stop apologizing for this great nation and start defending it," she said.