Obama Wins Backing of 9/11 Commission Co-Chairman Lee Hamilton
By Julianna Goldman
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April 2 (Bloomberg) -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama won
the sup****t of one of
his party's top foreign policy figures, Lee Hamilton, a former U.S. House
member from Indiana,
where an im****tant primary vote occurs May 6.
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.
``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, 76, also sided with Obama, 46, on two foreign policy stances
that have been
criticized by Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, Obama's rival for the
Democratic nomination,
and Senator John McCain of Arizona, 71, the presumptive Republican
nominee. Both have dismissed
the Illinois senator, saying he doesn't have the experience to deal with
critical foreign
policy matters.
``He wavers from seeming to believe that mediation and meetings without
preconditions can solve
some of the world's most intractable problems, to advocating rash,
unilateral military action
without cooperation from our allies in the most sensitive region of the
world,'' Clinton, 60,
said Feb. 25 in Wa****ngton.
Hamilton said he agreed with Obama's position on meeting with U.S.
adversaries such as the
leaders of Iran without conditions. Also, Obama's consideration of
unilateral military action
against terrorist hideouts in Pakistan is already U.S. policy, Hamilton
said.
Tight Race
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 Indiana, where
polls show a tight
race ahead of the primary.
Hamilton, who was also a co-chair of President George W. Bush's Iraq Study
Group, served for 35
years in Congress, retiring in 1999. He is the president and director of
the Woodrow Wilson
International Center for Scholars and serves on Bush's Foreign
Intelligence Advisory Board and
his Homeland Security Advisory Council.
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