New Hampshire voters have a distinct choice for U.S. Senate. On policy, philosophy, style and character, the two candidates could hardly be less similar.

New Hampshire has come to know Sen. John Sununu as a man of character, principle, conviction and integrity. (How many times do you get to say that about a U.S. senator?) Jeanne Shaheen's suggestion that Sununu is a George W. Bush clone at worst and a loyal party man at best is laughable (as is most of Shaheen's campaign).

For starters, Sununu wouldn't be in the U.S. Senate today had he not given up his safe U.S. House seat and risked his political career to challenge incumbent Sen. Bob Smith in the 2002 Republican primary. Not exactly the behavior of a blind party loyalist.

Sununu's record in the Senate is full of similar risk-taking, including numerous bipartisan efforts to solve problems by joining with Democrats to actually pass useful legislation instead of grandstanding to score political points.

From filibustering the USA Patriot Act to voting against the Republican transportation and farm bills to helping broker a deal with Democrats on judicial appointments to being the first Republican elected official in Washington to call for former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' resignation, Sununu has defined himself as a senator who puts principle before party.

Jeanne Shaheen, on the other hand, has a record of nothing but blind partisanship. She talks a lot about independence, but she has never shown it.

You don't have to take our word for it. Here are what moderate or left-leaning newspapers are saying about her.

"Shaheen, by contrast, offers little more than a slate of Democratic talking points," wrote The Eagle-Tribune of North Andover, Mass., in its endorsement of Sununu.

"Shaheen's campaign has been a vapid series of Democratic sound bites without new ideas or systematic thinking about how the economy, war, health care, the deficit and energy link to one another," the Portsmouth Herald wrote in its endorsement of Sununu.

Those are just two of 15 newspapers that endorsed Jeanne Shaheen for Senate six years ago only to back Sen. Sununu this year.

They see in Sen. Sununu the same thing we do: a principled leader who has become a much-needed and nationally prominent voice of conscience in the Senate.

One thing you always know about Sununu: He will think carefully and independently about every bill that comes before him.

We don't know of anyone who has ever said that of Jeanne Shaheen.

When one of the state's traditionally liberal newspaper editorial pages calls the liberal candidate's campaign "vapid" and endorses her conservative opponent, it is time for even left-leaning voters to take a step back and ask what they really want in a U.S. senator.

Do they want independence, thoughtfulness and leadership? Or do they want a partisan puppet who, according even to her ideological allies, has nothing to offer beyond scripted talking points handed down from party headquarters?

The choice for U.S. Senate on Tuesday is as clear as it can be.

It has to be John Sununu -- for New Hampshire, and for the country.