Lugar gives Obama an ‘A’ on foreign policy

President Obama has earned an ‘A’ in foreign policy so far, Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) said today.

Obama has maintained many of President Bush’s policies, Lugar said, but has approached them in a more conciliatory, humble manner.

“The idea of being more inclusive and reaching out, alliances, working with the international comities, his own vigor in going all over the world giving these speeches in the first few weeks or months of the administration are really remarkable,” Lugar told a group of reporters Monday morning.

“The idea of being more inclusive and reaching out, alliances, working with the international comities, his own vigor in going all over the world giving these speeches in the first few weeks or months of the administration are really remarkable,” Lugar added.

Lugar, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is one of Congress’s most influential voices on foreign affairs. When Obama was a Senator, the two teamed up on a number of issues, including nuclear non-proliferation.

While suggesting Obama’s conduct was an improvement from Bush’s, Lugar gave the former President credit for acting in a chaotic and dangerous environment.

Bush felt that the country was in “such an embattled position that we had to act unilaterally whether the international organizations responded or not in terms of our own defense and security. Time has passed since that point, and it’s appropriate that the new administration adopt, as President Obama has, a very new position.”