(John Edwards’ Senior Economic Adviser Leo Hindery and CNN Washington Bureau Chief David Bohrman at New America Foundation Dinner) This is interesting news. John Edwards has appointed cables sports industry giant Leo Hindery to serve as Senior Economic Advisor on his campaign.

I’m back from an interesting and informative conference put on by the Center for American Progress and the Century Foundation. I shared some reflections earlier and have a few more to throw out. Senator Gordon Smith delivered a keynote this morning.

I’m taking a minute during lunch at America in the World to share a question I had during today’s insightful panel on the Middle East. The panel consisted of Helene Cooper (moderator), Daniel Kurtzer, Ellen Laipson, and Daniel Levy.

I’m at the Hyatt Regency this morning at a conference jointly sponsored by the Center for American Progress and the Century Foundation. The topic? “America in the World.” Madeleine Albright kicked things off this morning. A couple of takeaways: – Secretary Albright has long proposed that the U.S. is the “indispensable nation.

(Ahlam Ahmed Mahmoud al Al-Jabouri; photo credit: Marc Perelman) The Forward correspondent Marc Perelman has a moving and important profile in Salon of Ahlam Ahmed Mahmoud al Al-Jabouri who is now an Iraqi refugee in Syria.

This morning I dropped by the launch of ONE Vote 08, a campaign to raise the profile of global poverty and health in the presidential elections. The ONE Campaign has done a remarkable job raising the profile of these issues generally over the past few years, and in a bipartisan way.

Pete Pace is out, and it’s good for the country.

I spent my morning meeting kids at Barnard Elementary School in D.C.’s Petworth neighborhood. I talked a bit about the problems I care about and learned a good deal about the problems they see as relevant to them.

President Bush just appointed former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman to serve a five-year term on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council. Mehlman wins a few points in my book for trying to expand the reach of the Republican Party and perform genuine outreach to minority communities.

I’ve just spent a morning meeting the dynamic and extremely impressive Mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newsom — followed by a talk I gave (but can’t report on) in the most famous lion’s den of movement conservatives about the positives and negatives of President Bush’s foreign policy efforts.