Hotline After Dark -- Your Money Edition

Lots of '08 talk last night:

Chris Dodd played "Hardball":

On Iraq: "Whether it's Prime Minister Maliki or someone else, you need leadership in the country that has the capacity, both religious and political leaders, to bring these elements together. I'm not confident that's ever going to happen, but certainly, under this administration of Prime Minister Maliki it's been very anemic, at best."

On his meeting with the Fed: "That's my major concern today, that we keep people in their homes here. I was pleased to see Hank Paulson say the president cares about that. That's the first time I've heard that statement come out of anyone in the administration. But that ought to be a major focus of our attention, getting these lenders -- which they can do, by the way -- to rework these loans in a way so that people can stay in their houses. That ought to be our primary responsibility right now" (MSNBC, 8/21).

He was also on "Money & Politics":

Asked if he felt reassured after his meeting with his Fed: "I felt sort of mixed emotions. ... And while I have been vocally critical of the Fed not responding as early as they should of regarding the regulatory arm here, they are now doing that. My hope is that they will continue to move at a fast a pace as you might expect the Fed to move in dealing with some of the underling causes that have created this problem. I was less enthusiastic with the administration's response."

Asked if there's a risk of recession: "I wouldn't go that far at this point at all."

More: "I have confidence in Ben Bernanke. ... He's new at the job so I'm going to give him more of an opportunity here" (Bloomberg, 8/21).

ALL ABOUT OBAMA

There was a lot of talk about various developments in the Barack Obama campaign:

Dem strategist Donna Brazile, on if Michelle Obama was taking a swipe at Hillary Clinton: "I don't think ... she was taking a swipe at the Clintons or Giuliani or anyone else. She was trying to establish his credentials as a family person. ... Look, she is a straight-talking person. She's very smart, very articulate. She's an asset to the campaign. And I think, if she wanted to take a swipe at somebody, she would not hide words. Michelle Obama would come out and say it" ("Situation Room," CNN, 8/21).

CNN's J. King, on Obama's Miami Herald op-ed: "By writing that op-ed, Senator Obama is stirring up a debate that has faced every president and every presidential candidate since Dwight Eisenhower." More: "Most interested in this debate is a tiny slice of the electorate. Cuban-Americans amount to less than 1 percent of the U.S. population, but they are heavily concentrated in a critical presidential battleground, Florida, adding up to about 8 percent of the electorate in a state decided by just 537 votes in campaign 2000. Cuban-Americans are the most reliably Republican of the nation's Latino voters, leaving many to wonder why Obama would want to stir up such an emotional debate. ... Some of his rivals, though, suggest that Senator Obama might be trying to shift attention from that debate controversy over his statement that he would meet with Fidel Castro and other leaders of so-called rogue nations in his first year in office" ("Situation Room," 8/21).

Al Sharpton, on Obama's claim he will increase African American turnout: "If he were the nominee, he probably would get a huge turnout among African-American voters, because of the history of it, in him being the first nominee of a major party, African-American. I think that the challenge will be the turn out to get to be the nominee. I think that other campaigns would argue -- I'm sure Mrs. Clinton would argue that if she were the nominee, she would get a huge women turnout because she would be the first woman nominee, or Governor Richardson the first Mexican American. So I don't think that his statement is an outrageous statement at all" ("Tucker," MSNBC, 8/21).

STILL WAITING FOR FRED

And there was also a lot of talk about Fred Thompson's not-quite-official campaign:

FNC's Brown, on Thompson's speech at the VFW: "While Thompson said things most of the vets wanted to hear about soldiering on in Iraq, the former U.S. senator seemed to struggle at times delivering his speech. ... Thompson seemed unfamiliar with the applause lines in his own speech" ("Special Report," 8/21).

NBC's Todd, on the lawsuit against Thompson: "Any citizen can file a claim like this with the SEC. It didn't get it done. The good news for Fred Thompson, the SEC will probably rule on this sometime in 2020. If he makes it to the White House, it will be four years after his two terms. The bad news is it piles on this stumbling and bumbling launch that the Thompson campaign has been about. They have had three campaign managers, by the way, and they've yet to announce" ("Countdown," MSNBC, 8/21).

USA Today's Page, on Thompson: "His biggest strength is unhappiness with the field that is out there right now." On his weaknesses: "He hasn't run in a while. He isn't particularly well known. ... He's not as well known as you might think. ... Campaigning for president is hard to do and he hasn't been out there. ... In a state like Iowa ... that's a very organization intense-like process and he does not have that kind of structure in place" ("NewsHour," PBS, 8/21).[EMILY GOODIN]