Chavez is a court jester. He is allowed to exist only for the amusement of others.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a different story entirely.
"Mr. Ahmadinejad’s habit of answering every question about Iranian policy with a question about American policy was clearly wearing on some of the members, but at the end they acknowledged that he was about as skillful an interlocutor as they had ever encountered. “He is a master of counterpunch, deception, circumlocution,’’ Mr. Scowcroft said, shaking his head. Mr. Blackwill emerged from the conversation wondering how the United States would ever be able to negotiate with this Iranian government.
“If this man represents the prevailing government opinion in Tehran, we are heading for a massive confrontation with Iran,” he said."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/wo...st/21iran.html