By Greeting Hugo Chavez, Is President Obama Slighting U.S. Allies?

President Obama joins Hugo Chavez's book club (AP/FNC)

This is a rush transcript from "Glenn Beck," April 20, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GLENN BECK, HOST: When Obama was running for president of the United States, he said, "Oh, I'll meet with dictators, you bet."

There was one very strong, just out-of-control conservative that said, "I think that might be a bad idea." Here is what that conservative said:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON: I will not promise to meet with the leaders of these countries during my first year. I will promise a very vigorous diplomatic effort, because I think it is not that you promise the meeting at that high of a level before you know what the intentions are. I don't want to be used for propaganda purposes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: OK. She — I mean, who would do that? Can you show the picture of — who would say this is propaganda purposes? Oh, gee, that's great. No one knows you're even — all right.

We're going to talk to Karl Rove and Ambassador John Bolton about this.

Hi, guys. How are you?

KARL ROVE, FORMER BUSH SENIOR ADVISER: Not too good after seeing that picture.

BECK: Isn't that amazing?

ROVE: Look, buy this book.

BECK: Yes, buy this book. It rocketed to it's like, I don't know...

ROVE: Number two, number two in Amazon.com.

BECK: It was number 800,000 beforehand....

ROVE: Fifty-two thousand and some odd.

BECK: Yes. Now, number — now, No. 2. You know about the book, Karl?

• Video: Watch Beck's interview

ROVE: Yes. It's a vicious attack on the United States' involvement in the hemisphere. And look, I don't care about the book so much because that was Chavez shoving it into his hands. What I worry about is this president comes home and defends this by saying, "You know what, they got a defense budget that's 1/600th of ours; we don't have to worry about him."

Well, is he so naive to understand what Venezuela has been doing to destabilize our neighborhood? Is he unaware of what they did to support the FARC, the narco gangs against Colombian government? Does he understand what he's doing to spend money around our entire hemisphere in order to elect leftist enemy — you know, leftist enemies in the United States?

I mean, you are, if you're going to meet with him, if you're going to shake his hand, don't be sitting there backslapping and laughing and hugging him. And for certain, make sure that you go out of your way to sit to identify yourself with the allies of the United States first and foremost. Sit there for 52 minutes while Daniel Ortega harangues the United States and then to stand up and basically say, "Me no Alamo." You know, I was only 3 months old when the Bay of Pigs happened. You're right. America is bad. You know, America — you know, I confess it, we're all bad. You know, we promise not to be that way in the future.

I mean, please...

(CROSSTALK)

BECK: What should the president had done yesterday or the day before yesterday, sitting there, listening to Daniel Ortega do that.

JOHN BOLTON, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: There are a lot of different ways you can do this. Look, I have shaken hands with a lot of objectionable people in the diplomatic service of my country.

BECK: Sure, you worked at the United Nations. Of course, you did.

BOLTON: The way to do it is you shake their hand and in his case, you say, "Good morning, general" and then you go off and do something else.

I think the most troubling aspect of this is, what it showed about the president, how superficial and uninformed he is about diplomacy, about our history in this hemisphere, and about the message he is sending to the Chavezes, Ahmadinejads and Kim Jong-Ils in the world — which is basically, you don't have anything to worry about from this administration.

BECK: This man — I'm convinced this man doesn't see history the same way most Americans see history. American history, I believe he does see a lot of American history as evil. And let me tell you something, when it comes to — correct me if I'm wrong, gang — but when it comes to our history in Latin America, you know where we went wrong in Latin America? With the damn progressive movement at the early turn of the century, with Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.

It was the progressives that went down there and put dictators down in Latin America. It wasn't right-thinking Americans. It wasn't common-sense Americans. It was the progressives that did it.

BOLTON: Well, I think the most important thing for today, as Karl said, is this particular dictator has gone out of his way to destabilize American allies. Look at Colombia facing a rebellion by narco terrorists who have threatened the legitimately, democratically-elected government. And there was nothing for President Uribe of Colombia.

What signal does that send to pro-American people in Latin America?

ROVE: Oh, there was a signal to Colombia. And that was — this administration stiffed Colombia on the free trade agreement that would lead to an expansion of U.S. sale of goods and services to Colombia.

BECK: What is the...

ROVE: And he stiffed them, he stiffing allies.

BECK: What is the end game here? If you were sitting here, don't play...

ROVE: Look, let's take — let's take the president at his own word. The end game is he feels, by doing these things, by confessing America's failings, by being willing to talk to these people, to have a dialogue with them, by not being critical of them, by treating them as equals and gaining their respect that it will change their behavior.

Now, maybe it's too early in this fight, but let's see — let's see if they do change their behavior. And I doubt that they will. The only way they're going to change their...

BECK: Chamberlain.

BOLTON: Now, I'll tell you what will happen. Ahmadinejad will now conclude that his friend Hugo Chavez is not at risk from the United States. Their corporation will increase on nuclear and other matters. More purchases from Russia, potentially even nuclear reactors — all of this because the president is signaling he's just not going to push on Chavez.

BECK: Hey, I want to talk to you. We have to take a break, but when we come back, I want to talk to you, guys, about — because here he is, Ortega and Chavez saying that, you know, we're destabilizing the region because we're so bad, we're so evil and we got all these guns going across the border which — gee, you could solve that by securing the border. The other part of that is it's bogus.

But, Ambassador, you know transnationalism. You know what's going on. When we come back, I want to talk about this new little proposal about, "Hey, we're going to get tough on drugs and guns" and what it means to the average American — in just a second.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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