Clinton Defeats Obama in New Hampshire

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Sen. Hillary Clinton won a narrow victory over Sen. Barack Obama in New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary, spurring a state with a large proportion of independent voters to the polls in record numbers. The win put a damper on the Obama campaign, which, polls on Monday had suggested, was en route to victory.

The Clinton comeback, unavoidably compared to her husband's performance in the state in 1992, offers new momentum for the New York senator as the nominating contest heads to South Carolina.

Republican Sen. John McCain, whose blunt style and reputation for independence resonates well in the Granite State, clobbered the rest of the GOP field, including Mitt Romney, the former governor of nearby Massachusetts.

"We sure showed them what a comeback looks like," McCain told his gleeful supporters as they chanted, "Mac is back!"

"We are the makers of history, not its victims," he said. For the GOP, it's the second consecutive victory for candidates who just weeks ago were running far back in the pack of contenders in national polls.

Democrat John Edwards finished third with 17 percent, while Iowa's GOP victor Mike Huckabee finished with 12 percent in third place. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani finished a distant fourth, with 9 percent, in a state he had virtually abandoned to his Republican rivals.

It was a record turnout for the primaries, and election officials took the precaution of sending extra ballots to certain polling stations as the day wore on and the ballot boxes filled up. An estimated 60 percent of the 800,000-plus registered voters cast ballots, more than 500,000 in all. There were many younger voters, but many elderly voters as well, who seemed to carry Clinton to victory. The turnout vastly outdoes the last record showing in 2000, when 396,385 votes were cast. Voting in several places was extended as crowds queued around buildings, waiting in banks of dirty melting snow, to have their chance to vote.

Barbara Mulroy, 69, has lived in Manchester her entire life, but she'd never voted for president.

"I thought it was about time, before I die, to get my two cents in," she said, moments after casting her vote for Hillary Clinton. "I voted, so now I can complain, right?" The economy was a high priority for her and many others, as well as the price of heating oil and food.

Women dominated Democratic voters, while more men voted for a GOP candidate. Polls also showed that Democrats were pleased with their choice of candidates: Eight in 10 strongly favor their candidate, compared with two thirds of Republican primary voters.

Riding a surge of support from his Iowa win, Obama kept the tone of his campaign upbeat and largely positive.

"You can afford to be nice, you can afford to be courteous, you can afford to reach out to people who might not always agree with you," he told a crowd at a high school in Manchester on the eve of the vote, when polls showed him with a lead over Clinton. "There are disaffected Republicans and independents out there who also want to get on the change agenda." But not enough voters supported him over the next 24 hours.

Clinton, meanwhile, went on the offensive, harping on Obama's lack of experience by describing her own. In rallies that were less focused on broad rhetorical themes like hope, she was heavy on specifics of her healthcare and college funding plans. She frequently told voters, as the primary approached, that she was best prepared to be the commander in chief "from Day 1." Just hours before the polls opened, at a rally in Dover, she invoked the 2006 terrorist attacks in London, which occurred just days after the selection of Gordon Brown as prime minister. It was, she said, "no coincidence" that al Qaeda had sought to test a new leader. Voters, like utility technician Edward Marshall Jr., 52, concurred, finding Obama's short tenure in the Senate insufficient experience to be president. "I liked him, but I can't vote for him yet," said Marshall.