Vice President-elect Joe Biden said he is worried about the “exceedingly high expectations” that world leaders have placed on President-elect Barack Obama.

“Their expectation for Barack’s presidency is overwhelming,” Biden said in an interview with CNN’s Larry King Live. “They are so hungry to have an American leader who they think has a policy that reflects our stated values, as well as one they can talk to.”

Biden, a Democrat, said he feels “somewhat badly” for President George W. Bush and called “unfortunate” the incident earlier this month when an Iraqi journalist threw both his shoes at the president, a Republican, during a news conference in Baghdad with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

“The incident in Iraq was -- was unfortunate,” Biden said. “I think that President Bush and, unlike Vice President Cheney, is upon reflection beginning to acknowledge some of the serious, if not mistakes, misjudgments that he made.”

Biden said yesterday on ABC’s “This Week” program that he plans to restore the balance to the vice president’s office after what he saw as overstepping by Vice President Dick Cheney.

‘Campaign Rhetoric’

Cheney, speaking separately on Fox News Sunday, dismissed Biden’s comments as “campaign rhetoric” and said he doesn’t expect Biden to have “as consequential a role as I’ve had during my time.”

“Joe’s been chairman of the Judiciary Committee, a member of the Judiciary Committee in the Senate, for 36 years, teaches constitutional law back in Delaware, and can’t keep straight which article of the Constitution provides for the legislature and which provides for the executive,” Cheney said. read more