Chavez: "If the climate was a bank [the U.S.] would already have saved it."

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was supposed to talk for, oh, five minutes in Copenhagen and he's approaching the half-hour mark right about now -- kind of like the Energizer Despot.

The highlights:

On the protesters getting tear-gassed outside the Bella center: "I think we need to say hello to all the people out there, most of them young."

On the competitive advantages of socialism: "There is a ghost running through the streets of Copenhagen... [A] terrible ghost... Capitalism is that ghost."

On bank bailouts vs. climate change bills: "The United States can produce dollars, just print them, and they think they've saved their banks and the capitalist system... If the climate was a bank they would already have saved it."

Glenn Thrush is senior staff writer at Politico Magazine.