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MANCHESTER, New Hampshire: Hillary Clinton
escaped with a much-needed upset win Tuesday in New Hampshire’s
key Democratic presidential nominating contest, beating Barack Obama
and righting her listing campaign.
Sen. 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.
“Over the last week, I listened
to you and, in the process, I found my own voice,” Clinton
triumphantly told cheering supporters after narrowly besting Obama,
who aims to be the first black US president.
“I felt like we all spoke from
our hearts,” said the former first lady, who hopes to be the first
US woman president. “Now, together, let’s give America the kind
of comeback that New Hampshire has just given me.”
Defying public opinion polls that
anointed Obama a double-digit favorite, and overcoming a third-place
defeat in the Iowa caucus last week, Clinton won the state primary
that saved her husband’s own presidential campaign in 1992.
With 96 percent of precincts
reporting, Clinton was ahead on 39 percent to 36 percent for Obama.
“I am still fired up and ready
to go,” the Illinois senator told supporters who gave him a
rock-star welcome as he conceded Clinton’s victory but vowed he
would ultimately win the party’s nomination and then the White
House.
“And when I am President of the
United States, we will end this war in Iraq and bring our troops
home,” he said, sounding a frequent campaign theme. “We will
restore our moral standing in the world.”
McCain, meanwhile, beat former
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as well as Iowa caucus winner and
former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister.
“My friends, you know, I’m
past the age when I can claim the noun ‘kid,’ no matter what
adjective precedes it. But tonight, we sure showed them what a
comeback looks like,” McCain said, as supporters roared their
approval, chanting “The Mac is back.”
Political implications
The upset wins left both
parties’ races uncertain, with no clear frontrunner to succeed US
President George W. Bush, who was bound for the Middle East
Wednesday and has not publicly chosen a favorite candidate.
McCain’s back-from-the dead
victory, in the state where a win briefly rescued his 2000 president
run, further scrambled the Republican race.
The 71-year-old senator, who
spent nearly six years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, led with 37
percent of the vote with 94 percent of results in.
“Another silver. I’d rather
have a gold, but another silver,” Romney said as his 32 percent
left him in second place again, after losing out in Iowa to Huckabee,
who placed third here with 11 percent.
--AFP
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