Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) took a swipe at President Barack Obama’s foreign policy decisions in a speech on Saturday at conservative think tank Americans for Prosperity’s Defending the American Dream summit in Dallas.

According to Business Insider, the Tea Party darling and possible Republican presidential contender for 2016 was enthusiastically cheered by the crowd, who chanted “Run, Ted, run!” and wildly applauded his attacks on the Obama administration.

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“Back in Washington there’s a diet that is now very, very popular,” Cruz quipped. “It’s called the Obama Diet. Works very, very well. You simply let Putin eat your lunch every day.”

Cruz further riled up the crowd by taking aim at the Affordable Care Act — also known as “Obamacare.”

“In the year 2017, a Republican president in the Rose Garden is going to sign a bill repealing every word of Obamacare!” he crowed.

He went on to belittle Obama’s decision not to commit thousands of ground troops to containing the spread of radical Islamic group ISIS in Iraq and its neighbor Syria.

“(A)ll across this world America has receded from leadership,” Cruz complained. “Look at Russia right now. Sadly, the state of the world is the Russian bear is encountering the Obama kitty cat.”

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“You know what? The United States of America has never been a kitty cat,” he went on. “The reason Putin feels no fear to march into his neighbors, the reason why our allies up and down Europe are terrified of what’s next is because this president, as he puts it, is leading from behind.”

Obama, Cruz said, should position “anti-ballistic missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic.”

Watch the full speech, embedded below via Business Insider:

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[hat-tip to Talking Points Memo]