Hotline After Dark -- A Sea Of Support

"World News," "Evening News" and "Nightly News" each led with the U.S. Navy freeing the American captain.

Many weighed in on Pres. Obama's role in the freeing of the American captain:

CNN's Borger: "What we saw about President Obama is the way that he operates. He did hold 17 briefings. He did make sure that the agencies were talking to each other. You know, we've had that trouble in the United States, where one agency doesn't talk to another agency. The coordination on this was good and he made a decision and stuck with it. That's important for people to know" ("Situation Room," 4/13).

NBC's Todd: "There actually seems to be some true hesitance with this White House. They feel like they're getting a lot of credit, and I think they're almost nervous that they're getting too much credit because ... had it gone badly, it would have been a big political problem for him" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 4/13).

FNC's Hannity: "This would be standard operating procedure, and it seems like the media wants to hold him up and say that this is Obama's decision. ... I don't see that this is extraordinary in any way. If there's Americans being held hostage and we've got a shot, you take the shot. ... The White House steered clear of the pirate crisis until, that is, the president swooped in to take all the credit" ("Hannity," 4/13).

After the jump, grab your tea cup.

(KATHERINE LEHR)

Gen. Wesley Clark: "I think he did the right thing. He gave the authorization to use force. He also did the right thing in keeping his own personality and his name as far away from it as possible, because it doesn't do any good to personalize something like this. So I give him A-plus on judgment and handling of this. ... This shows what many of us said during the campaign, that it's a matter of judgment. And Barack Obama has it. He showed it here" ("Ed Show," MSNBC, 4/13).

Weekly Standard's Ham: "He's going to get some credit for acting correctly in this situation, especially as a guy for whom about half of the country we've been worried that he might be a little too squeamish about using force" ("O'Reilly Factor," FNC, 4/13).

Dem strategist Paul Begala: "I do think, actually, if there's some sort of political bureaucratic winner here, it's actually Robert Gates, the defense secretary, who is now trying to change our military posture away from what he views Cold War weapons systems and toward more special forces" ("Situation Room," CNN, 4/13).

DRINK IT UP

There was also discussion about the GOP's intentions regarding tomorrow's nationwide Tax Day Tea Party.

Ex-"West Wing" EP Lawrence O'Donnell: "This is an orchestrated attempt by Dick Armey, Newt Gingrich, people who are trying to repair the Republican Party. They know that the Republican Party is in shambles. They know that Eric Cantor is a disaster as a new leadership member. They know that Boehner is doing a terrible job in the leadership."

More O'Donnell: "They've been in the leadership in the House of Representatives. They don't have a great deal of faith in this strategy and that's why it's been delegated somewhat at arm's length. That's why they're pretending that this is a grassroots movement" ("Countdown," MSNBC, 4/13).

Wall Street Journal's Moore: "This really isn't something that's being driven, A, by the Republican Party, or B, by the national conservative groups. You got to give credit where credit is due on this. It really is a genuine kind of grassroots thing that just spontaneously combusted around the country. ... This is the real million man march" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 4/13).

More Moore: "Woe to the politician who doesn't take these people seriously" ("On the Record," FNC, 4/13).

CNN's Keilar: "Depending on who you talk to, if you're talking from the right here on Capitol Hill, they're emphasizing the grassroots organizations. If you listen to the left, they're emphasizing that there are some conservative groups who are involved. But the truth seems to really lie in the middle."

More Keilar: "That there are a lot of people, individual Americans, who are fed up you know who are worried about taxes and worried about economic approaches. And they're going through Web sites in some cases from some of these groups who are allowing them to organize and set up posts on these Web sites so they can reach out to other people. There seems to be a little bit of both going on" ("Lou Dobbs Tonight," 4/13).