NEW ORLEANS -- Any Republican in the hotel ballroom who hadn't heard Liz Cheney speak before likely walked away impressed. In a nearly 30-minute speech, the former vice president's daughter laid into the Obama administration over health care, foreign policy and national security, concluding that the country simply deserves better.

"2010 and 2012 are going to be critical years in the long history of this great republic, and we have to make our voices heard," said Cheney. "We have to stand up and fight."

Cheney called the health care reform bill "one of the most arrogant power plays in American history." On national security, she said "someone needs to keep reminding this president that foreign terrorists do not have constitutional rights."

She called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's reception in Washington two weeks ago "disgraceful," and said President Obama doesn't understand that "the world is safer when there is no daylight between the United States and the state of Israel."

The speech received rousing ovations during and after, and opened the three-day Southern Republican Leadership Conference. Next on the docket tonight is Newt Gingrich, whom many Republicans here hope will run for president in 2012.