Dick Cheney told Playboy that Barack Obama is "the worst president in my lifetime."

"The way Obama is functioning now, he's crippling the capacity of future presidents to deal with future crises," Cheney said. He added, "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."

Cheney told the magazine that his criticisms of Obama now surpass his "significant criticism" of Jimmy Carter and said the penalties for current policies will be steep:

[T]he 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.