“I’m a mushy guy . . . I can cry at a commercial,” Glenn Beck explained to Chris Wallace of Fox News exclusively on his Sunday show following a ‘Restoring Honor’ Rally before 300,000 to 600,000 people in front of the Lincoln Memorial yesterday urging the nation to return to “faith, hope and charity.”

But Beck, a conservative populist, held back the tears yesterday in delivering  his message of collective salvation.

Wallace asked Beck, who wears his emotions on his sleeve during his radio and TV shows, why he cries so much?

Beck, who bills his radio and TV shows on Fox as a fusion of entertainment and enlightenment, said he thought it began some 15 years ago when he ‘bottomed out’ on life.  “I was a hard living hard drinking guy.”

He explained how he had only taken one college course in his life, “because I couldn’t afford any more.”

He said he then began reading and learning, “Before that, Beck said, “I didn’t know my butt from my elbow.”

Wallace asked Beck, “What the message of the day was?”

Beck’s quick response was that it was not a message for a day.  If that’s all it accomplished, we accomplished nothing.

Beck said, “Every American has a role in saving America,” adding “our problems must be solved through God.  Americans want the truth about where politicians are taking America.”

Beck said he thought the answer was in ‘collective salvation’, which he described as redemption in what everyone does collectively.

Although the event was explicitly religious with many speakers openly professing their Christian faith, there were some signs of politics, if not in the speeches certainly in the size of the crowd.  “People are not happy with things and where the country is going,” Beck said.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a prospective GOP presidential candidate in 2012, delivered the rally’s keynote speech.  In keeping with Beck’s insistence that the rally be apolitical,  she said she spoke as a mother, not a politician. Signs were discouraged and there were few.  The tenor of the event was a mixture of a toned-down tent revival meeting and a history lesson from Beck’s show.

“Say what you want to say about me.  I’m the mom of a combat vet and you can’t take that away from me,” Palin said.  Her son Track, an Army infantryman, served in Iraq.

However, alluding to a theme from President Obama’s 2008 campaign said: “We must not fundamentally transform America as some would want.  We must restore America and restore her honor.”

Wallace during his interview did bring up Beck’s earlier reference to Obama as a racist during an interview on Fox.  Beck did admit that his comment was a mistake and that today he believes Obama’s message is couched in ‘liberation theology.’

Wallace noted that the blogs are talking about a Palin, Beck ticket for President?  “Not a chance”, Beck said.  “I don’t think I would be electable.”

Beck was criticised for holding the rally on the spot where Martin Luther King Jr., delivered his “I have a Dream Speech.”   Beck said when he scheduled the rally, he didn’t realize it was the 47th anniversary of that speech.  “I wasn’t even born then,” Beck said.

Wallace noted that King’s march was more about jobs and an economic bill of rights.  Beck said that the agenda should be about ‘equal justice.’

We should be standing up for what is right and empowering the individual.”

Beck said that we needed a President with “honor and integrity”.  “Our country is in trouble and I don’t see a political solution,” suggesting, “Let’s try God.”