Obama might meet with Chavez: Despite, because of, or in contrast with Chavez’s opinion of Bush?

I enjoy reading New York Times news articles, because frequently journalists will throw in some sort of dry humor where it doesn’t belong – almost, it would seem, where an editor might miss it. Today I found such humor in the article, Obama Calls for Thaw in U.S. Relations With Cuba. First of all, I have to say that this picture from the article is simply joyous:

Have you ever seen him so happy?

Anyway, the relevant excerpt from the Times article comes right near the end of the article, at which point most readers will have probably stopped reading because their technology-induced attention deficit disorder has stolen them away. Here is the quote:

There are no plans for Mr. Chávez and Mr. Obama to meet privately, but White House officials said in advance of the meeting that the two would participate in at least one small group leaders’ meeting, and that Mr. Obama would not spurn any outreach by Mr. Chávez, who frequently referred to Mr. Bush as “the devil.”

I find the last bit about “the devil” just silly.  Is the point that Obama is not letting Chavez’s anti-Bush statements get in the way? Or, is the point that Chavez himself spurned outreach and Obama is so much better than that, thus morally trumping Chavez? Or, is the point that Obama also thinks Bush is the devil, and this is why he’s so excited to meet with Chavez (see the picture)? Or, did the anecdote just make the sentence kind of funny? I think it’s the latter, because Chavez’s rhetorical flourishes against the Bush administration, which are just as amusing as they are numerous, have no causal connection to anything else in this article – certainly not Obama’s foreign policy (or even Bush’s foreign policy, for that matter).