Vice President Joe Biden was profiled on CBS’s 60 Minutes tonight, where defended Obama against criticism, especially from former vp Dick Cheney that he is a weak president. Biden said, “I don’t know what he’s apologized for.”

Here is the video:

When asked by Leslie Stahl about the criticism from Dick Cheney that Obama apologizes all of the time, Biden said, “Look, I don’t know anybody in the world who thinks this guy’s a weak president, number one. Number two, I don’t know what he’s apologized for. For example, saying we should close Guantanamo is not an apology. That’s not an apology saying we fundamental-we don’t engage in torture. He didn’t go out and say, ‘Oh, my God, the fact that the last administration did these things – we’re so sorry.’ He did say – he just said, ‘We don’t do torture anymore.”

Many conservatives point to Obama’s recent op-ed before the Summit of the Americas as an apology. Here is what they are referring to, “Too often, the United States has not pursued and sustained engagement with our neighbors. We have been too easily distracted by other priorities, and have failed to see that our own progress is tied directly to progress throughout the Americas. My Administration is committed to the promise of a new day. We will renew and sustain a broader partnership between the United States and the hemisphere on behalf of our common prosperity and our common security.”

What conservatives spin as an apology is actually a criticism of the previous administration. Obama isn’t apologizing, he is telling everyone that there is a new sheriff in town, and things are going to be different. Instead of developing ideas and battling Obama on policy, Republicans are still looking for the magic words that will strike a chord with the public and bring Obama down. Democrats tried to do this to Reagan in the 1980s, and Republicans tried to do this to Bill Clinton in the 1990s. It didn’t work in the past, and it won’t work now. Biden is right. Obama hasn’t apologized for anything, but that won’t stop Republicans from continuing to say that he has.