Clinton fights back to take New Hampshire

· Clinton wins against predictions
· Women voters prove decisive
· McCain wins in Republican race

Ewen MacAskill and Suzanne Goldenberg
Guardian Unlimited

Hillary Clinton waves as she arrives for a visit to a polling site at a school in Concord, New Hampshire. Photograph: Justin Lane/EPA

Hillary Clinton resurrected her campaign for the White House with a win in New Hampshire last night that defied the pollsters and halted Barack Obama's march towards the Democratic nomination.

On the Republican side, there was also a comeback, with John McCain taking first place.

In one of the most unpredictable and exciting contests for years, Clinton overcame a double-digit deficit in opinion polls to squeeze out a narrow victory over Obama.

With almost all the results in, Clinton had captured 39% of the vote and Obama 36%. John Edwards had 17%.

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The significance of the victory, after opinion polls and even Clinton's own advisers expected defeat, was reflected in an unusually emotional speech from the normally self-contained candidate.

"I come tonight with a very full heart. I want especially to thank New Hampshire. Over the last week I listened to you and found my own voice. I want to give America the kind of comeback New Hampshire has given me," she said.

The decisive moment for Clinton appeared to be an encounter in a diner on Monday, in which she came close to tears when talking about the campaign. The clip, which was shown repeatedly on television, revealed a rare vulnerability.

The tight race was all the more resonant because of the Clintons' history in New Hampshire. In 1992, Bill Clinton used his surprising second place finish as a springboard to the nomination calling himself the Comeback Kid.

"This is a huge victory for Hillary. We have stopped the freight train," a Clinton insider said.

Minutes before Clinton made her victory speech, Obama conceded victory and congratulated Clinton.

"I want to congratulate Senator Clinton on a hard fought victory here in New Hampshire. She did an outstanding job; give her a big round of applause," he said.

But he said he was stilled "fired up and ready to go" and that he remained the candidate for change.

"You, all of you who are here tonight, all who put so much heart and soul and work into this campaign, you can be the new majority who can lead this nation out of a long political darkness," he told supporters.

"If we mobilise our voices to challenge the money and influence that stood in our way and challenge ourselves to reach for something better, there is no problem we cannot solve, there is no destiny that we cannot fulfill."

The result marks an astonishing turnaround for Clinton, who seemed almost overwhelmed by the wave of Obama-mania that followed his win in the Iowa caucuses last week.

In the Republican race, McCain celebrated his victory with supporters. "We sure showed the people of this country what a real comeback looks like. We're going to move on to Michigan and South Carolina and win the nomination," he said.

He ran even with Romney among Republicans voters and owes his success to the overwhelming support of independents.

Romney conceded to McCain soon after the television networks called the results. He said he would be fighting on. Third-placed Mike Huckabee claimed a moral victory, saying he had been back in sixth place a few weeks ago.

"I have a great, great friend, who is a highly decorated Marine from Vietnam, and he made a statement once. He said, I've never lost at anything I've done. Sometimes the game ended before I got finished playing."

McCain's win leaves the Republicans with no clear frontrunner.

Exit polls suggested Clinton owed her strong performance to women voters who returned to her camp after drifting away in Iowa. Exit polls showed women voted in greater numbers than men, and Clinton won 46% of their vote against 34% for Obama.

The turnout was also older, according to the exit polls, a demographic which favoured Clinton, who has drawn overwhelming support from middle-aged and retired people.

She also benefited from the residue of affection for her husband. In exit polls, about a third of Democrats said they would have voted for Bill Clinton if they could have.

Clinton is to meet with her inner team today to discuss reshaping her campaign. Earlier yesterday, her strategists were leaning towards directing her energies towards an all-or-nothing focus on Super Tuesday on February 5.

The Clinton camp accepts that her tactic of stressing her experience over Obama had lost out to his message of change. She has since opted to stress that while he is promising change, he cannot deliver it. The campaign team also hopes the US media will subject Obama's life and policies to greater scrutiny, having given him a soft run.

The strategy now is based on the calculation that Clinton will claim victory in next week's primary in Michigan, albeit a potentially hollow one given that she is the only name on the ballot, and hopefully Nevada on January 19, Florida on January 29 and New York, California, Ohio and Texas on February 5. Obama is expected to take his home state, Illinois.

She is banking on winning support from the huge Hispanic population in Florida and California, who, the Clinton campaign claims, do not like Obama because of his stance on illegal immigration. But that strategy could come unstuck because of the nationwide publicity Obama has received since his Iowa win.