The ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee parted ways with his party's presidential nominee Wednesday by endorsing Democratic Senator Barack Obama's approach to diplomacy. In a speech at the National Defense University, Indiana Republican Senator Richard G. Lugar weighed the benefits of talking to foreign leaders, including U.S. enemies, against other actions, such as military force. The issue marks one of the sharpest divides between Senator Obama and Senator McCain, who has called the Democratic nominee naive for suggesting that he would sit down with leaders such as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Senator Lugar praised Obama, noting that isolation often does not resolve contentious issues. "He correctly cautions against the implication that hostile nations must be dealt with almost exclusively through isolation or military force," Lugar said in a prepared remarks released before his speech. "In some cases, refusing to talk can even be dangerous."
Lugar cited North Korea, which was just removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terror, as a diplomatic success story and urged more contact with Syria and Iran.
This is not the first time senators Lugar and Obama have seen eye-to-eye on foreign policy issues. Lugar noted back in July that he was "pleased" to have worked with Senator Obama on nuclear proliferation issues after an Obama ad ran mentioning Lugar by name.
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