Chavez prefers Obama to 'the devil'

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The last time he was here, Hugo Chavez called then U. S. President George W. Bush "the devil," but on Wednesday, Venezuela's leader offered slightly more-positive sentiments for Barack Obama.

"The arrival of President Obama, who can deny it, generates, has generated and will continue to generate big expectations," Chavez told a meeting of U. S. union leaders at the Venezuelan mission to the UN.

In New York for his scheduled address before the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, Chavez praised Obama's Wednesday speech before the same body, noting that the U. S. president said Washington is ready to work to promote peace.

But Chavez also said the White House and the foreign policy it crafts is unlikely to live up to the president's lofty words.

"Sometimes one gets the sensation that there are two Obamas. One, who gave the speech, is good. The other, really, makes decisions that are contradictory to his speech," he said.

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