A president needs sound judgment when dealing with the threats and challenges to America.

On the most critical issue of our time, Barack Obama showed that judgment. He opposed the invasion of Iraq before it began.

As president he will confront the challenges America faces with that same judgment and a tough, confident diplomacy that protects America's interests.

It's time to abandon the short-sighted, naive idea that we punish our enemies by not talking to them. It's time to let go of the thinking that got us into Iraq without a plan in the first place. It's time to change the way Washington has dealt with the world under the Bush-Cheney vision of the world.