Beck: I don’t think I’m electable

Author and TV host Glenn Beck denied he has any aspirations of running for office during an interview on “Fox News Sunday” the day after his Restore Honor rally attracted thousands to Washington.

When asked if the rally would prompt him to consider seeking election, perhaps as the running mate of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Beck said there was no chance he will run.

“I don’t know what Sarah is doing, but I hope to be on vacation. I have no desire to be president,” Beck said. “I don’t think I’d be electable. There are too many people who are far smarter than me.”

Beck said he would like to find someone with honor and integrity to serve as president, but he hasn’t seen such a candidate yet. He also dismissed the idea that simply being able to draw a large crowd qualifies someone to lead the country.

“If that’s the case then we should
elect Billy Graham or Paul McCartney. That’s not how we should be
looking for a president,” Beck said. “We should be looking for people with the right ideas.”

“My
feeling is the country is in trouble, both parties have sold their
souls,” he added, arguing the country should try “turning back to God” as recommended by the Founding Fathers.

Beck also defended his statement that people of faith need to reclaim the civil rights movement, arguing the movement was about giving everyone a shot, not ensuring outcomes. He also estimated the crowd at his event at between 300,000 and 600,000 people.

“Race should not be in politics,” he said referencing the alleged voter intimidation incident in 2008 involving the New Black Panther Party in Philadelphia and arguing that any citizen, especially black Americans, should be outraged when they see the civil rights of others infringed upon.

“I wasn’t even born during civil rights movement. But I understand it intellectually,” Beck said in response to charges he is misappropriating the legacy of civil rights activists. He also said he didn’t intentionally schedule his rally on the 47th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Beck admitted he regrets calling President Obama a racist who hates white culture, calling the statement inaccurate. He has since read Obama’s books and believes the president is a believer in liberation theology, a movement popular in Latin American that interprets the teachings of Jesus Christ in terms of liberation from unjust social, economic and political conditions.

“[Obama’s] viewpoints come from liberation theology. At a gut level I sensed that, but miscast it as racism,” Beck said. “I want to amend [that statement], I think it is much more of a theological question.”

Beck said President Obama has also expressed his belief in collective salvation in four different speeches, the idea that an individual’s salvation is directly tied to that of the collective. He said most Christians look at collective salvation as the direct opposite of the Gospel’s teachings.

“I’m not judging President Obama, I would love to have a conversation about collective salvation,” Beck said, adding that “Jesus came for personal salvation.”

Finally, in response to the question “Who is Glenn Beck?” he positioned himself as a father, a concerned citizen and a reformed alcoholic who found himself washed up and ignorant at the age of 30 and has attempted to reform his life by finding God and educating himself.

“Only because I bottomed out, I realized I didn’t believe in anything,” Beck said. He also pointed out that he spent the last three years of the Bush administration “telling people to run for your lives.” Beck called comedian Jon Stewart’s jabs at him on the “Daily Show” funny and said he cries so often publicly because since cleaning up his life “I got all mushy inside.”