Obama Wins Backing of 9/11 Commission Co-Chairman Lee Hamilton

By Julianna Goldman

April 1 (Bloomberg) -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has won the endorsement of one of his party's top foreign policy figures, Lee Hamilton, who hails from Indiana, home to one of the next crucial primary votes.

Hamilton, a former U.S. House member 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. ``He impresses me as a person who wants to use all the tools of presidential power.''

Hamilton also sided with Obama 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, the presumptive Republican nominee. Both have dismissed the Illinois senator, saying he doesn't have enough 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 said Feb. 25 in Washington.

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.

Indiana Primary

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 May 6 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.