Hillary's tears turn to smiles after New Hampshire win

WASHINGTON: Pollsters and political pundits in America skipped breakfast on Wednesday morning; they had so much egg on their face. Defying all pre-poll projections, Hillary Clinton stormed to a dramatic win in the New Hampshire primary, stalling rival Barack Obama's energetic drive towards the Democratic nomination. On the Republican side too, there was an electoral rebirth. John McCain, also written off by many analysts after a feeble start to his campaign last year, roared into contention beating a host of rivals, principally Mitt Romney, to make it an another open race. But it was Hillary's shock win that left the press and the pundits flabbergasted. Every pre-election poll had put Obama at least ten points ahead. So what happened? Here's what: New Hampshire's motto is Live Free or Die, and the people here are considered famously and fiercely independent. The state has some 45,000 independent voters and there were indications that many of them had not made up their minds even a day before the election. Pollsters ignored this constituency. It turns out that they pulled their weight and punished pollsters for projecting an Obama win. Hillary Clinton's margin of victory was only around 6000 and many voters are said to have decided in her favour in the last-minute after the press simply wrote her off. Then there is the Lachrymose Theory. Pre-election polls showed Obama had a 3 per cent advantage among women voters. But exit polls on Tuesday showed that it was Clinton who ended up with a 13 percentage plus female vote, indication that her tears – or near tears – may have done the trick. Some women did admit to being swayed by Hillary's emotional moment. Whatever the case, Clinton appeared vastly relieved. ''I come tonight with a very, very full heart, and I want especially to thank New Hampshire,'' she told cheering supporters who gave oxygen to her campaign. "Over the last week, I listened to you, and in the process I found my own voice." On the other hand pollsters and media pundits momentarily lost their voice, wondering where they went wrong. "This has happened in election after election but we never seem to learn," lamented CNN's Anderson Cooper. Even the normally cautious Bob Woodward confessed that he had been writing a premature Clinton political obituary titled Dynastic fatigue.