Hotline After Dark -- People Came From Miles Around, Everyone Was There

"World News" with Pres. Obama's UN speech. "Evening News," led with Obama's UN speech and featured an interview with Iranian Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "Nightly News" led with Obama's UN speech and featured an interview with British PM Gordon Brown.

Talk about Obama's UN address dominated the cable talk 9/23 p.m.

Liz Cheney: "I was concerned about a number of places in the president's speech where he really sort of seemed to take shots at the previous administration, but also talk about things like nuclear disarmament, in the sense that, if the United States disarms, somehow, it will encourage the Iranians, the North Koreans to disarm. I do think that there was some naivete in this speech. And I think there was a lot of sort of places where he could have done more to talk about freedom, he could have done more to talk about democracy. Those words seemed to me to be missing from the speech" ("Situation Room," CNN, 9/23).

Weekly Standard's Hayes: "Think about the last sentence that we heard in the introduction there, 'When you question the cause or character of my country, think about the concrete actions of the last nine months.' Basically what President Obama is saying there, think about me when you think about the goodness or greatness of the United States" ("Special Report," FNC, 9/23).

CNN's Zakaria: "I think Obama struck exactly the right tone, which is to say, look, we have changed policy on a number of areas, and these were issues which the rest of the world thought the United States was dragging its feet on, not signing U.N. treaties, not being part of various international processes and protocols. Now you don't have the United States to blame anymore. So, are you going to now cooperate? It's exactly the right message" ("Campbell Brown," 9/23).

After the jump, more UN speech reax, the continued health care debate and ex-Rep. James Traficant unleashed.

Ex-McCain spokesperson Nicolle Wallace: "This speech was so detached and so insulated from the values of the American people. ... I promise you, this will be a court that will sow his weakness over the next four years" ("Hannity," FNC, 9/23).

Dem strategist Robert Zimmerman: "His speech today demonstrated that toughness, in terms of the way he really took on our allies and demanded more of them" ("Situation Room," CNN, 9/23).

Ex-UN Ambassador John Bolton: "When you have our own president here apologizing for past policies by previous administrations and basically giving a speech that's all about him, it's very hard to imagine what other governments would see profit in actually thanking the United States for some of the things we've done in the past, like, oh, I don't know, defending freedom around the world, just to pick one at random" ("On the Record," FNC, 9/23).

NPR's Williams, on Obama: "He says he understands that he is a symbol to much of the world. And it's not about him personally, he said. He didn't say it in an arrogant tone. He said it was about the symbolism, the hope that the U.S. would begin to work, be less militaristic in its attitude" ("Special Report," FNC, 9/23).

CNN's Zakaria: "I think Obama struck exactly the right tone, which is to say, ... you don't have the United States to blame anymore. So, are you going to now cooperate? It's exactly the right message" ("Campbell Brown," 9/23).

RUNNING OUT THE CLOCK

Health care remained a major topic of discussion 9/23 p.m.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), on GOPers running out the clock in Finance Cmte mark up: "Delay is their friend. And they played that out in negotiations with Grassley and Enzi during the negotiations with Baucus and Conrad and Bingaman and Snowe. They're doing it again. Delay is what kills health care reform. ... They keep this going long enough, they think they can defeat it. That's why we don't run roughshod over them, we simply set some rules" ("Countdown," MSNBC, 9/23).

House Min. Leader John Boehner on House Dems: "At some point, it's going to become clear that this can't pass. I don't know whether that's three weeks from now, four weeks from now, six weeks from now. But, at some point, it's going to become clear. And then they're going to have to make a decision. Do they accept the defeat, or do they hit the reset button and scrap all these big-government ideas, and work with Republicans to make our current system work better?" ("Your World," FNC, 9/23).

Rep. Jason Altmire (D-PA), on the Blue Dogs and the House bill: "I would suspect it's the moderate to conservative members, Blue Dogs included, who would be the last votes that would come on board on a package like this. The way the bill is currently configured, I don't think I can support it. There are some things in there like the income tax increase that I have been very clear in my opposition to."

More Altmire: "And when you look at the way they are trying to reach the 218 level, which is what you need to pass the votes, you're going to have to have some moderates and some conservatives on board. And I don't see where they're going to get those votes the way the bill is currently packaged" ("Your World," FNC, 9/23).

PAGING HOWARD BEALE

Ex-Rep. James Traficant (D-OH) played "Hardball" 9/23 p.m.

Traficant, on continued investigations: "I'm glad to be here [on television]. I'm glad to be anywhere. I still have federales swarming around me. They won't admit that, but they're looking for any opportunity to send me back."

Traficant, on the stimulus: "If we can give billions of billions of dollars to banks who won't even lend it to our people unless they have $3 in the bank for every $1 they borrow, I said, Why not take care of our own people? So I'm tired of seeing this money going all over the world, all this stimulus money. Stimulate this! That's what I'm saying."

Traficante, on whether he might run for office again: "You never know. I may. I want to get the IRS, kick them in the crotch real good."

Traficant, on trade: "These imports are coming in. Our trade deficit is $700 billion-plus. Beam me up! How can we overcome these problems?"

Traficant, on Cong. acting as prostitutes: "Years ago, on the House floor, on a foreign aid debate, I called the members of the House of Representatives a bunch of political prostitutes. They demanded my words be stricken. They jumped up like 100 wounded TV evangelists. So finally, I said, 'OK, I apologize to all those people who were offended, and to those who were not offended, I commended them.'

More Traficante: "But when I went outside, there was this little stringer group, and they said, 'Tell us what you really feel, Jim.' And here's what I said. I said, I want to apologize to all the hookers in America for having associated them with the United States House of Representatives. Yes, I think it's a big whorehouse, and I think they better start taking care of America and forget about the Mideast and start worrying about the Midwest."

Traficant: "I'm speaking at a lot of these tea bag party -- tea party rallies. I think that they need a little bit of direction, but they mean well. They're upset with the country."

Traficante, on whether he might run for office again: "You never know. I may. I want to get the IRS, kick them in the crotch real good" (MSNBC, 9/23).