Hamilton endorses Obama as uniter
WASHINGTON -- Former congressman Lee Hamilton, an elder statesmen and foreign policy leader in the Democratic Party, says Barack Obama has the best chance of bringing more unity to the country.
"He really does speak the politics of consensus building," Hamilton said in formally endorsing Obama for the presidency on Wednesday.
He also praised the Illinois senator's "extraordinary appeal" to new voters and ability to "redesign the contours of American politics."
Hamilton's endorsement could burnish Obama's foreign policy credentials nationally and give him a boost in Indiana, where a new poll shows Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York has a nearly 10-point lead.
Hamilton, who represented southeastern Indiana from 1965 to 1998 and now heads the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, helped lead the 9/11 Commission and the Iraq Study Group. Former representative Tim Roemer, the other Hoosier who served on the 9/11 Commission, also has endorsed Obama.
Obama and Clinton are in a tight battle for Indiana's May 6 primary and for the Democratic presidential nomination.
In a March 29-31 poll conducted in Indiana by SurveyUSA, Clinton had a 52% to 43% lead over Obama. The margin of error was plus or minus 4.3%.
Hamilton said he's told people on a casual basis of his support for Obama but decided to publicly announce it this week because of questions he'd gotten from the Indiana media about his preference.
He has no immediate plans to campaign in Indiana for Obama and said his full travel schedule would make that difficult.
Ability to build a consensus has been a priority for Hamilton, who has said the bipartisan 9/11 Commission knew it needed to reach joint conclusions to be effective.
"I think the greatest skill needed in American leadership today is consensus building," he said Wednesday.
Hamilton said Obama can appeal to the voters most likely to determine the outcome in the general election — the "restless and result-oriented practical Americans" who don't identify strongly with one party or the other but just want solutions.
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