RUSH: I’m not gonna have time to get his sound bite in, but Mr. Cheney was asked by Hannity:

“We outed a CIA operative in Afghanistan,” no big deal, “a VA scandal that is breathtaking in terms of how inappropriate it is for our vets, and we also have America. Is it in decline in terms of perception around the world?” I’ll let you hear what former Vice President Cheney replied when we get back. He basically says that this is the weakest president in his lifetime — and he is being charitable when he says that.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here’s the Dick Cheney answer to the question: “We outed a CIA operative in Afghanistan, a VA scandal that is breathtaking in terms of how inappropriate it is for our vets. And we also have America, is it in decline in terms of perception around the world?”

CHENEY: I think the perception around the world is increasingly negative, but I think the main focus is on our president. He’s a very, very weak president, maybe the weakest, certainly in my lifetime. And I know from my own experience on a recent trip through the Middle East spending several days talking with folks I’ve dealt with all the way back to Desert Storm, they all are absolutely convinced that the American capacity to lead and to influence events in that part of the world has been dramatically reduced by this president.

RUSH: Right. I would like to add, this is not accidental, folks. This is not due, as some would want you to believe, even on our side, to incompetence and not being prepared for the job. I mean, clearly there’s some of that. But this is not coincidental or accidental or just happening. If you have the courage to properly identify the president’s view of this country and then put him in the Oval Office with free rein to do whatever he wants to do, if he believes this country is whatever term you want to use, paper tiger, unjust, immoral, whatever, if he thinks this country needs to be taught a lesson or two, then he’s gonna see to it that that happens.

All these people around the world see somebody they think is indecisive. The American capacity to lead, to influence events, say in the Middle East or anywhere else, has been dramatically reduced by this president. Exactly, on purpose. He doesn’t think that we have any legitimacy. Who are we? When he was once asked, many times, actually, about American exceptionalism (imitating Obama), “Well, of course I believe in American exceptionalism. But I’m sure the people in the UK think that they’re exceptional, and I think the people in France think they’re exceptional, too.”

This is the way he swats it away as being meaningless. Well, everybody thinks they’re cool, but there’s nothing special about us. I think he probably actively believes, who are we to tell anybody in the world what to do? And you might be of the same mind-set in a way. I mean, look at the reaction we got to the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag. A lot of people called here, “It’s none of our business.
What the hell, Rush, what are we supposed to do, send troops everywhere?” No. But you see, it boils down to leadership, precisely because of our exceptionalism, precisely because we, the United States, are the exception in humanity. We have, thus, been thrust into a role of leadership, where liberty and freedom are concerned. And fighting for it everywhere also buttresses it here.

We never have been isolationist. It has always been a tenet. I mean, this really is the first — maybe Woodrow Wilson would be the first. But in our lifetimes, this really is the first president who thinks that that’s all hogwash, freedom and liberty. It’s not our job. It has no effect on our freedom, what’s happening elsewhere in the world, and who are we? Who are we? In Obama’s worldview — and not just his, but a lot of leftists — we’re dictators ourselves.

I can’t tell you number of times I’ve heard leftists and Democrats criticize this country for imposing freedom on other people, imposing our way of life. Who are we to impose our way of life? See, I’ve never thought freedom is an imposition. I’ve always thought of freedom as liberation. I’ve always thought that the United States proudly occupied the leadership role of freedom and liberty throughout the world, stood for it, defended it. And, in fact, why do you think the rest of the world wants to live here? Well, now it might be our welfare state, but back in the old days that wasn’t part of the equation; it was liberty and freedom. It was opportunity. It was to escape tyranny, bondage, whatever authoritarian circumstances people faced.

They wanted to come here, and they wanted to become Americans. They were proud to come here and learn English and become Americans. They wanted to be part of what was happening here. And when they did, they were very proud. That assimilation is something that’s long since ceased to occur throughout much of immigration. It’s not totally abandoned, but particularly with illegal immigration, assimilation is not even a factor. It’s not even something we require anymore.

But the president, the rest of the world looks, he’s content to let people, whatever they want to do, wherever. It’s not our job. We don’t have the moral authority to tell anybody what to do, what not to do. That’s his view. We just don’t have that. We’ve never deserved it. We never earned it. The fact that we were pretending to be more moral and superior to all these countries around the world, we never had that right. That’s the Obama Doctrine. We are weak, perceived weak because we simply are not an ally anymore, when you get down to brass tacks.