Former Vice President Dick Cheney blasted President Obama in a speech at the Wyoming Republican Party state convention Saturday.

“He has been an unmitigated disaster to the country,” Cheney said at the event in Cheyenne, Wyoming, reports said.

Cheney had praise for likely GOP nominee Mitt Romney, saying he expected the former Massachusetts governor to do a “whale of a job.”
Cheney said it was essential that the party unite behind Romney and focus their energies on defeating Obama in the November general election, reported the Associated Press.

Cheney has been a strong critic of the president, saying last year that Obama had “learned from experience” that many of the Bush administration policies on terrorism, which he criticized on the campaign trail, were necessary.

The speech was Cheney’s first public appearance since he underwent heart transplant surgery last month. Reports said Cheney was able to walk onstage and speak for over an hour without appearing to tire.

Cheney spoke briefly about his health, saying: “I’m not running any foot races yet, but it won’t be long.”

The former vice president spent 10 days in a Virginia hospital last month to undergo the heart transplant operation. Cheney has a history of heart trouble: He suffered a fifth heart attack in February of 2010 and had bypass surgery in 1988 and had a pacemaker installed in 2001.

At the weekend convention, the Wyoming GOP selected 14 of the 29 delegates who will attend the party’s convention in Tampa in August. All of the delegates selected Saturday were committed to back Romney.