Last update - 00:00 09/01/2008
Clinton wins in New Hampshire, reviving White House bid
By The Associated Press
Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday squeaked out a victory in New Hampshire's primary, slowing - and possibly even stopping - rival Barack Obama's momentum.
Clinton, whose husband, former President Bill Clinton, used a second-place finish in New Hampshire to propel himself to the White House, had trailed Obama in recent polling. In the last days, though, she overhauled her campaign operation in the state and took a new tone to the trail. Aides, meanwhile, executed the long-laid ground game that even rivals acknowledged was masterful.
Meanwhile, John McCain won the New Hampshire Republican primary Tuesday night, completing a remarkable comeback and climbing back into contention for the U.S. presidential nomination. Hillary Rodham Clinton moved out to a surprising lead over Sen. Barack Obama in the Democratic race.
McCain, a senator, rode a wave of support from independent voters to defeat former Gov. Mitt Romney of the neighboring state of Massachusetts. The showing reprised his victory in the traditional first-in-the-nation primary in 2000, when he defeated George W. Bush. The early front-runner in the Republican race, McCain's candidacy fell apart last year.
Clinton's campaign had braced for a second loss in a key early state in America's state-by-state nominating process. Early Tuesday, it was still uncertain if their ground-game plan would work.
The campaign had made more than 1.4 million phone calls to voters and had 6,000 volunteers to canvassing the small northeastern state in the last few days.
The one-time front-runner saw her advantage evaporate, but she trod onward. She spent Tuesday visiting polling locations and coffee shops and vowed to meet with as many voters as she could before polls closed at 8 p.m.
"We're going to work all day to get the vote out, Clinton said before dawn," visiting a polling location with daughter Chelsea.
Clinton overhauled her strategy after her Iowa embarrassment. She took voters' questions and appeared less stymied. She worked hard to connect with voters and appear less imperial. She shuttered her stump speech for one she and husband Bill Clinton reworked. In it, she emphasized change - the watchword of this election.
"If you want to know what I will do as president, I hope you will look at what I've done. Because the election isn't about choosing change over experience. Change only comes with experience. And with the challenges we face, we've never need change more, or the experience and strength to make it happen," Clinton told New Hampshire reporters in a conference call to sell her final argument.
But the once-inevitable second Clinton White House came into serious doubt when she placed a devastating third place in Iowa's caucuses and Obama built momentum from his win.
In the end, though, key voting blocs were there for Clinton - or were not there for Obama, depending on how the campaign frames it. According to exit polling conducted by The Associated Press and the networks, far more women voted than men; Clinton won 45 percent of them compared to 36 for Obama.
Also according to exit polls, only half as many New Hampshire voters under 30 turned out as in Iowa, depriving Obama of crucial support.
Late Tuesday, McCain told The Associated Press: "We showed the people of this country what a real comeback looks like," speaking in an interview as he savored his triumph. "We're going to move on to Michigan and South Carolina and win the nomination."
It was a bitter blow for Romney, who spent millions of dollars of his own money in hopes of winning last week's Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, yet finished second in both.
By tradition, the primary in the northeastern state, the first on the political calendar, has the power to propel winners into the rush of primaries that follow and to send the losers home for good.
Clinton, who finished third in Iowa, was mounting an unexpectedly stiff challenge to Obama in the first primary of the presidential campaign. With votes counted from 24 percent of the state's precincts, she had 40percent to 34 percent for Obama, who is seeking to become the first black U.S. president. Former Sen. John Edwards, the 2004 vice presidential nominee, had 17 percent.
McCain was winning 37 percent of the vote; Romney had 28.
The economy and the war in Iraq were the top issues in both party primaries, according to interviews with voters leaving their polling places.
American politics were shaken up by last week's Iowa caucuses, where Obama defeated Clinton and Romney lost to Mike Huckabee, a Baptist preacher turned politician.
Obama, a first-term senator and son of a Kenyan father, has brushed aside complaints that he is too inexperienced to lead the United States, campaigning on a message of hope and change in the aftermath of George W. Bush's presidency. His appeal in Iowa and New Hampshire, both overwhelmingly white states, have eased doubts about whether America was ready to elect a black president.
Clinton, wife of former President Bill Clinton and a senator, has campaigned on her experience, and until a few weeks ago she seemed to have a lock on the nomination. But she finished third in Iowa, and fell to second in pre-election New Hampshire polls. Nationally, she is deadlocked with Obama.
Interviews with voters leaving their polling places showed she was winning handily among registered Democrats, while Obama led her by an even larger margin among independents.
The early results in New Hampshire surprised even her own inner circle.
In the hours leading up to the poll closing, her closest advisers had appeared to be bracing for a second defeat at the hands of Obama.
Officials said her aides were considering whether effectively to concede the next two contests, caucuses in Nevada on Jan. 19 and a South Carolina primary a week later, and instead try to regroup in time for a 22-state round of contests on Feb. 5.
Neither of the two Republicans leading in the latest national Gallup poll were top contenders in New Hampshire. Huckabee won in Iowa largely on the strength of the evangelical Christian vote, which is less of a factor in New Hampshire. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has seen his national front-runner status fade, campaigned little in Iowa and New Hampshire, counting on presumed success in later states to give him momentum going into the Feb. 5 primaries.
Huckabee finished third in New Hampshire with 12 percent; Giuliani was fourth with 9 percent.
McCain, a maverick, independent-minded senator and a Vietnam War hero, was saw his standing fall last year partly because he was seen as too liberal on immigration, an important issue to Republicans. But while other candidates faltered, he has surged in New Hampshire, where he defeated Bush in the 2000 primary. His national standing also has been helped by his advocacy of sending more U.S. troops to Iraq, a once unpopular position now seen by Republican voters as an answer for quelling the violence there.
Independent voters were crucial in the New Hampshire primary. Unlike other states, where voters may participate only in the party in which they are registered, New Hampshire allows independent voters to cast ballots in either primary.
According to preliminary results of a survey of voters as they left their polling places, more independents cast ballots in the Democratic race than in the Republican contest. They accounted for four of every 10 Democratic votes and about a third of Republican ballots. The survey was conducted for The Associated Press and U.S. television networks.
The candidates spent fortunes on television advertising. TNS Media Intelligence, a firm that tracks political advertising, said Clinton spent $5.4 million to reach New Hampshire voters, and Obama spent $5 million.
As happened in Iowa, Romney spent more on television than his rivals' combined expenditures for the New Hampshire primary.
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