This has probably been reported elsewhere, but I was heartened somewhat over the weekend by some things I had heard about Obama’s approach to the beginning of his own campaign.

Yesterday, I presided when the incumbent Chairman of the National Intelligence Council and Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Analysis Thomas Fingar spoke about the National Intelligence Estimate production process.

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was a compromise forced on Bill Clinton’s presidency by a recalcitrant, (then) anti-gay Sam Nunn who stopped Clinton’s plans to end discrimination against homosexual men and women serving in the U.S. military.

The German Marshall Fund has a nifty new website designed to create a portal for Europeans interested in the American elections and policy issues, particularly foreign policy. I like the site — and am pleased that a couple of TWN items have already been featured on the site’s roster.

Today, on this same screen below, I will be posting live stream sessions with former Iraq Foreign Minister and liberal secularist chief of the Iraq Democratic Party ADNAN PACHACHI. This will air between 9:30 am and 10:30 am EST.

Barack Obama has clinched the nomination. Watching his speech now. He’s being gracious to those rivals who he beat, particularly Hillary Clinton. Good show. That is maturity. I haven’t heard or seen Hillary Clinton’s speech tonight — but the blog buzz is reverberating with an echo that hers was less gracious.

Unfortunately, I did not receive a visa in time to participate as a speaker in the 3rd Annual Ravand Institute Conference in Tehran this year. I was invited along with Suzanne Maloney of the Brookings Institution, Michael Kraig of the Stanley Foundation, and Robert Malley of the International Crisis Group.

I haven’t weighed in much on candidates for Congress, but I really do like Darcy Burner who is running in Washington State’s 8th District. Matt Stoller just posted this TV ad from the 2006 race in which her opponent Dave Reichert essentially called Burner a ditz.

(Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell chats with National Intelligence Council Chairman Thomas Fingar) To my knowledge, I’ve never met National Intelligence Council Chairman Tom Fingar, but I’ve been an admirer from afar of his work and approach to intelligence estimate construction.

Well, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei doesn’t seem to be buying Barack Obama’s The Audacity of Hope or Dreams from my Father, but he does seem to be buying himself a copy of Bill Clinton’s My Life.