Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- 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.

In an October debate with Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Biden said Cheney “doesn’t realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president.” Article I deals with the legislative, not the executive, branch.

In the CNN interview, Biden also weighed in on the controversy surrounding Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s alleged efforts to sell Obama’s former Senate seat to the highest bidder.

“I know in our system you are innocent until proven guilty, but those tapes that were released by the special prosecutor, excuse me, by the U.S. attorney seem incredibly, incredibly incriminating,” Biden said. “From where I sit, he looks like a guy who is not capable of governing.”

Report Released Tomorrow

Obama’s transition office will release tomorrow a review of his staff’s contacts with Blagojevich about the vacated Senate seat. The president-elect has said he had no contact with the governor about the Senate seat and that his staff didn’t act improperly.

Obama promised on Dec. 11 to “gather all the facts about any staff contacts” with Blagojevich or his aides and release them quickly. On Dec. 15, the prosecutor who filed the charges against Blagojevich, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in Chicago, said he had asked Obama to delay releasing the results so the prosecutor’s office could “conduct certain interviews.”

Biden also said that Obama will keep his campaign promise to shut down the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and is in the process of drawing up plans to do so. Obama’s team is in talks with other countries about their willingness to take some of the prisoners and Greg Craig, Obama’s White House Counsel, is assembling the necessary information to close the prison in a “rational way” that protects both civil liberties and national security, Biden said.

“That is a process under way,” Biden said. “It’s going to be complicated to do it, it’s going to take more than a couple of months, but close it we must.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Julianna Goldman in Washington at jgoldman6@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 22, 2008 22:22 EST