Women’s vote hands victory to Hillary

HILLARY CLINTON yesterday basked in the glow of her primary win in New Hampshire, where she defied polls and narrowly beat rival Barack Obama in the state’s key Democratic presidential nominating contest.

Senator John McCain meanwhile staged his own comeback on the Republican side, triumphing in the crucial early vote despite having been widely written off months ago as his campaign flagged.

“I campaigned really, really hard across New Hampshire,” said Ms Clinton, who grew tearful in a rare show of emotion on the eve of the primary, leading to ample political opining that the display either helped or hurt her.

“I don’t pay a lot of attention when people say I’m up or when people say I’m down,” she told CNN. “I really believed that I had a good chance to win. Nobody else believed it, but all day, I did.”

Ms Clinton told cheering supporters: “Over the last week, I listened to you, and in the process, I found my own voice.”

Despite public opinion polls that anointed Mr Obama a double-digit favourite and suffering a stinging third-place defeat in the Iowa caucus last week, Ms Clinton won the state primary that saved her husband’s own presidential campaign in 1992.

Tabloids in New York, where Ms Clinton serves as senator, plastered shots of her laughing face on the front page with headlines “Who’s Crying Now?” in the New York Daily News and “Back From the Dead” in the New York Post.

Ms Clinton came out ahead with 39% to 36% for Obama, even as exit polls showed more Democrats cared most about change (54%) than experience (19%).

Women seemed to be flocking back to the Clinton camp, after opting for Mr Obama in Iowa.

Fox and CNN exit polls showed Ms Clinton on top among women voters by 47 to 34%. Fifty-seven percent of voters in the Democratic primary were women.

Asked about what role the key voting blocks of young people, women and independents may have played in his loss, the 46-year-old Illinois senator told Fox: “It’s hard to say.”

“This is going to be a really hard-fought battle,” Mr Obama added, voicing optimism that “we’re going to be in a good position to win the nomination.”

Former senator John Edwards, second in Iowa, finished third among Democrats, but vowed to stay in the race to the end.