Today, 24 states are holding presidential nominating contests in the closest thing to a national primary that the United States has ever seen. And if voting doesn’t winnow the field of candidates down to two presumptive nominees, the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia will have their say in their own primaries next Tuesday. But we are already looking beyond the primaries to the choice that will lie before us in November. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is our choice in the Democratic primary and in the general election. For all the attention surrounding the showdown between Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Obama, the differences between the two candidates on policy are minute. Factors like background, experience, character and philosophy are therefore more important. By any measure, Hillary Clinton is a capable and accomplished woman. As a senator and as one of her husband’s closest advisers during his administration, she has been a leading and sensible voice on every major issue of the past 15 years, but none more than the need for universal health care. Few American politicians, aside from those who have actually served as president, have been so vilified by their opponents as Clinton, or endured such a protracted gauntlet of public criticism and scrutiny as she has. Such experience, however, would more likely hinder Clinton’s ability to enact her agenda than it would help. We would like to believe that a second Clinton administration would not mean a return to the political scene of discourse, dominated by phrases like “Hillarycare,”Whitewater,”vast right-wing conspiracy” and maybe even “Monica.” But we know better than that. Only Obama offers the kind of clean break from the status quo that 28 years of Bushes and Clintons have created – a break we very much want to see happen. We are hardly the first group of college students to reach that conclusion. But too many of Obama’s supporters have become transfixed by the campaign’s historical implications. For some, the election of a black president would be a convenient way to eradicate several generations of liberal guilt, believing that Obama’s greatest contribution would be symbolic. But we believe he is capable of much more than that. An Obama presidency would encourage more of America’s youth to work in government and participate in the political process – his campaign has already done so. It would demonstrate to the next generation that public service is a noble calling and one that is desperately needed after the horrifying incompetence of the present administration. And, although he was derided by the Clinton campaign for saying so, the formative years Obama spent growing up abroad would assuredly lend him a greater degree of credibility on the international stage. If any candidate can win the goodwill of world leaders to rebuild America’s image, it is the candidate who knows what it means to be mocked for having an ethnic-sounding name, who has had to repeatedly clarify to people that he is Christian, not Muslim, and whose candidacy has attracted a wild following in his father’s homeland of Kenya. ost importantly, Obama has shown in his campaign and his early primary victories that he appeals to the widest spectrum of Americans, including independents and even Republicans. For Hoyas, young voters, D.C.-area residents and Americans, the choice is clear. Barack Obama has already raised the tone and tenor of this campaign; with wide electoral support, a mandate for change and a little luck, we believe he is best suited to raise the hopes and aspirations of America as our next president.