Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama won the support of one of his party's top foreign policy figures, Lee Hamilton, a former U.S. House member from Indiana. Mr. Hamilton praised Obama’s ability to transcend partisan division. ``I read his national security and foreign policy speeches, and he comes across to me as pragmatic, visionary and tough,'' Hamilton said in an interview yesterday. ``He impresses me as a person who wants to use all the tools of presidential power.'' Hamilton, who co-chaired the commission that investigated the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and headed the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said he was impressed by Obama's approach to national security and foreign policy. His endorsement could boost the Senator Obama's national security standing. "Barack Obama has the best opportunity to create a new sense of national unity and to transcend divisions within this country, not by ignoring them or smoothing them over, but by working together with candor and civility to meet our challenges," Hamilton said in a statement released Wednesday. On Obama's foreign policy stance, Hamilton said: "He will work with our friends and allies. Obama will strengthen our ability to use all the tools of American power, and relentlessly promote the American values of freedom and justice for all people."
Hamilton is best known as the top Democrat on the panel that investigated the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He also was co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan commission that assessed U.S. policy in Iraq, and serves on Bush's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and his Homeland Security Advisory Council. Although Hamilton is not a Democratic superdelegate, his backing comes on the heels of several high-profile endorsements for Senator Obama, who leads Senator Hillary Clinton in delegates for the party's nomination. Senators Bob Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota endorsed Obama in recent days. Mr. Hamilton spent 34 years in Congress representing a southern Indiana district before retiring in 1999. Hamilton now leads the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. In a speech there last year Senator Obama warned Pakistan that if he knew for sure that they knew where terrorists (as is suspected) were and would not act that he would use military force if necessary to root out terrorists (this has now become U.S. policy). Also, Mr. Hamilton said he agreed with Senator Obama's position on meeting with U.S. adversaries such as the leaders of Iran without conditions.
The endorsement from Hamilton, who was on the short list of former President Bill Clinton's 1992 vice presidential picks, may give a boost to Obama in the May 6 Indiana primary, where polls show a tight race.
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