Is an upcoming book by Cheney and daughter aimed at 2016 elections?
Former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz Cheney plan to publish "Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America" on Sept. 1.
Former US Vice President Dick Cheney spoke at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington in 2014 about the current state and future of American foreign policy.
Cliff Owen/AP
As Barack Obama wraps up the final two years of his presidency, there will be two kinds of books looking back on his time in the White House: those that celebrate it, and those that denigrate it.
A forthcoming book by former Vice President Dick Cheney falls squarely in the latter camp.
"Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America," by Mr. Cheney and his daughter Liz Cheney, promises to excoriate President Obama with a hard-hitting attack on his foreign policy, perhaps designed to influence the 2016 elections.
The book, which will be published on Sept. 1 by Threshold Editions, a conservative imprint of Simon & Schuster, argues that Obama has abandoned a longstanding tradition of American leadership in the world. In a statement issued by Threshold, the former vice president said Obama had "significantly diminished" US power at a time of a "rapidly growing" terrorist threat, as reported by the Associated Press.
"Reversing course on [Obama's] devastating policies must be the top priority for America's next president," Cheney said in a statement, hinting that the book may attempt to shape discourse for the 2016 election, in which foreign policy promises to play a significant role.
Cheney, President George W. Bush's hawkish vice president, is a vociferous critic of Obama. He recently called Obama the worst president in his lifetime. Cheney was also critical in the decision to invade Iraq in 2003, a move that was based on the false premise that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was developing nuclear weapons.
As CNN points out, Cheney's book announcement comes less than nine months after he and his daughter penned an editorial in The Wall Street Journal last summer lambasting what they called "the collapsing Obama doctrine."
"Despite clear evidence of the dire need for American leadership around the world, the desperation of our allies and the glee of our enemies, President Obama seems determined to leave office ensuring he has taken America down a notch," the pair wrote in the opinion piece.
Expect the book to be a continuation of their blistering editorial.