Quick '08 Update

- Time graded the Democratic candidates' performances during this past Sunday's debate.

- AdAge takes a look at advertising money, noting that total spending through August 6th has reached $7.9 million.

- YouTube has a sampling of questions users submitted for the Republican CNN-YouTube debate (via PrezVid).

- Barack Obama expanded his foreign policy platform after he called for an ease in travel restrictions to Cuba, promising to "grant Cuban Americans unrestricted rights to visit family and send remittances to the island." Obama explained his view in this op-ed in the Miami Herald, a position he's set to discuss further Saturday in Little Havana. NOTE: Obama's stance echoes NDN's position, which was most recently expressed by NDN President Simon Rosenberg in an interview with The Hill. For more background, check out video from our February forum, After Fidel.

- Joe Biden went up on air in Iowa with two new ads: "Cathedral" and "Security." The Des Moines Register has more on "Cathedral."

- Adam Nagourney from the NY Times highlights Rudy Giuliani's campaign style in rural areas, showing how the Former NYC Mayor has to stretch to find common ground.

- Governor Bill Richardson expanded his campaign to Nevada after John Edwards shifted his staff from the Silver State to Iowa and New Hampshire.

- Fred Thompson is facing an FEC complaint from blogger Lane Hudson, who says Thompson has raised far more money than he needs to explore whether to run for president. Thompson, whose latest fundraising numbers fell short of projections, has long said he was raising the funds needed to "test the waters."

- The NYT takes a look at speeches delivered yesterday by both John McCain and Hillary Clinton at the 108th National Convention Of The Veterans Of Foreign Wars. Fred Thompson and Barack Obama address the Convention today.

- I have to highlight this article from Sunday's Boston Globe, which wonders if Mitt Romney has "stepped out of a time machine from 1950s suburban America, golly-ing and gosh-ing his way across the nation."

- Chris Dodd met with Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson today to discuss an issue that was touched upon in Sunday's debates: the mortgage market. Check out this YouTube video of Senator Dodd discussing the issue.

For more information on NDN's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election, click here.