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MANCHESTER, N.H. — Former first lady Senator Hillary Clinton staged a triumphant comeback Tuesday in New Hampshire, narrowly defeating Senator Barack Obama and transforming the battle to be the Democrat presidential standard bearer into a two-contender fight.
"I found my own voice," Ms. Clinton told delirious supporters in her victory speech. Both her husband, former president Bill Clinton, and their daughter, Chelsea, hugged her.
"I believe deeply in America. … We are in this for the long run," Ms. Clinton said.
With more than 90 per cent of the vote counted, Ms. Clinton held a narrow but significant two-percentage-point lead, 39-36, in the critical New Hampshire primary, a contest that carries significance far beyond this small and unrepresentative state.
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama embraces his wife, Michelle, in Nashua, N.H., on Tuesday. (Michael Heiman/Getty Images)
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Meanwhile, in the Republican race, Senator John McCain triumphed, dealing Mitt Romney a second defeat in less than a week and keeping the Republican race wide open.
Ms. Clinton's comeback after being badly beaten in Iowa last week and with election-eve polls showing her trailing Mr. Obama by a double-digit margin clearly recast the Democrat race.
Mr. Obama admitted his campaign fell short of its hoped-for second consecutive victory. "I want to congratulate Senator Clinton on a hard-fought victory here in New Hampshire," Mr. Obama said in a concession speech after both campaigns had waited late into the evening as the nail-biting count of a record turnout dragged on.
But the Illinois senator insisted the swelling movement that vaulted him to a win last week in Iowa and a close second place in New Hampshire signalled a change in American politics.
"We want change, we want change," his mostly young supporters chanted.
"A few weeks ago, no one would have imagined we would accomplish what we have accomplished," Mr. Obama said. Still, Ms. Clinton had erased a double-digit Obama lead projected by election-eve polls. Her comeback surprised both pollsters and pundits in the critical N.H. primary, a contest that carries significance far beyond this small and unrepresentative state.
In New Hampshire, women made the difference for Ms. Clinton, just as young voters delivered victory for Mr. Obama in Iowa.
Seeking to become the first female president, Ms. Clinton won nearly half the women's vote while Mr. Obama got only about a third. In Iowa, Mr. Obama had narrowly edged out Ms. Clinton among women.
The victory by Mr. McCain, the septuagenarian Arizona senator, who only weeks ago was being written off in the Republican race, was greeted by ecstatic chants of "Mac is back" by supporters in the same Nashua, N.H., room where he won in 2000. "I'm past the age when I can use the word 'kid,'" said the 71-year-old Mr. McCain. "But tonight we sure showed them what a comeback looks like."
It was a play on the famous claim by Mr. Clinton, who dubbed himself the "comeback kid" after a strong showing in New Hampshire in 1992 eventually put him in the White House.
After a loss last week in the Iowan caucuses, Ms. Clinton retooled her appeal to voters on the run. She lessened her emphasis on experience in her New Hampshire appearances, and sought instead to raise questions about Mr. Obama's ability to bring about the change he promised.
At the Beech Street School in Manchester, city highway department employee Daniel Lencki, 58, said he had been going back and forth between Ms. Clinton and former North Carolina senator John Edwards, but decided after watching Saturday night's debate to go for Ms. Clinton, the Associated Press reported. The deciding factor, he said, was when Mr. Edwards boasted about backing a patient bill of rights as an accomplishment in the Senate and Ms. Clinton noted that the plan didn't pass.
"I like the other day the way she fought Edwards," Mr. Lencki said.
Registered independents, who could choose between the two parties' primaries, had been seen as a key to victory in both races in New Hampshire, but they were more of a factor on the Republican side. Early exit poll data indicated six in 10 independents opted for the Democratic contest and Mr. Obama led among them, but Ms. Clinton's advantage among women offset that. A third of Republican primary voters called themselves independent, and Mr. McCain easily outpaced Mr. Romney among them. Mr. Obama was even stronger in New Hampshire than in Iowa among the youngest voters, winning two-thirds of those aged 18 to 24. But Ms. Clinton and Mr. Edwards fared much better among 25- to 29-year-olds in New Hampshire than they did in Iowa, where more than half of them backed Mr. Obama.
Despite its small size, unrepresentative population and flinty reputation, New Hampshire's primary, the first in the nation, plays a disproportionate and often defining role in American presidential politics. Yesterday's record turnout in balmy spring-like weather and this election season's compressed and hectic timetable will add to the impact of the New Hampshire result.
Mr. Romney, a Mormon who spent tens of millions of dollars in New Hampshire, was left surveying the shattered debris of a campaign that suffered a second straight body blow. He was beaten last week in Iowa by Mike Huckabee, the guitar-playing Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor.
Mr. Romney conceded early. "Another silver," he told subdued supporters. "After three races, I've gotten two silvers and a gold … thank you, Wyoming," he said, referring to the tiny, relatively meaningless result from Wyoming. But the grim reality remained that Mr. Romney, once the governor of neighbouring Massachusetts, had failed to win in both New Hampshire and Iowa after predicating his campaign on winning early states.
Now Michigan, where his father was once a popular governor and where he himself grew up, becomes a must-win state for Mr. Romney.
But Mr. McCain, a decorated combat veteran and former prisoner of war, whose calls to send more troops to Iraq pressed the Bush administration to adopt the "surge" that has quelled some of the violence there, made it clear he was battling for Michigan, too.
"Tonight we celebrate one victory and now we leave for Michigan to win another."
Mr. Huckabee said his third-place result set the stage for a renewed drive when the primaries shift to the south. "We come out of here with continued momentum — better than people believed this old Southern boy could possibly do in New England," he said.
Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and Texas Congressman Ron Paul were locked in a battle for a distant fourth place. Mr. Giuliani campaigned little in New Hampshire and has predicated his campaign on fighting in the big states that hold primaries next month.
Mr. Edwards's finish, a distant third, left his campaign desperate for a win in South Carolina later this month.
Turnout Tuesday was huge. More than half a million votes were cast — 280,000 in the Democratic primary — both records. There were long lines at some polling places and the unprecedented number of votes slowed counting.
