Clinton, McCain Pull Out Wins in New Hampshire Primary

Now, a jubilant Senator Clinton just spoke to supporters on the campus of Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester.

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), New York: I come tonight with a very, very full heart. And I want especially to thank New Hampshire. Over the last week, I listened to you and, in the process, I found my own voice.

I felt like we all spoke from our hearts, and I am so gratified that you responded. Now, together, let's give America the kind of comeback that New Hampshire has just given me.

For all the ups and downs of this campaign, you helped remind everyone that politics isn't a game. This campaign is about people, about making a difference in your lives, about making sure that everyone in this country has the opportunity to live up to his or her God-given potential. That has been the work of my life.

We are facing a moment of so many big challenges.

JIM LEHRER: Mark, David, quickly, among other things, does this result on the Democratic side mean there's going to be a full-fledged campaign for the Democratic nomination, and probably a two-person race?

DAVID BROOKS: You're asking me to make a prediction now after having gotten this one so wrong? I think one of the things we've learned is that each state is now unique and that the idea that momentum is going to carry across and we're going to have this wave of sweeping across a whole bunch of states, don't count on it this year. The formulas are out.

The line she just gave, "I found my voice," I think she got to the essence of what happened. In the last couple of days, Hillary Clinton was angry at the debates. She teared up the other day. Somehow, people sensed the authenticity which they weren't sure was there. And I think we may look back at those things and say she did find her voice.

JIM LEHRER: Do you agree, found her voice?

MARK SHIELDS: I think there's no question she was a different candidate in that last week up there, and it apparently connected with an awful lot of voters, Jim. And that was missed by most, virtually every pollster and every pundit.

I was struck tonight when she used the phrase, "This campaign is about people, about making a difference in your lives." She began this campaign with the statement, "I'm in it to win."

And campaigns are about the voters, and candidates frequently forget that. She may have learned that in New Hampshire.

Now, more now on the reactions in and from New Hampshire from our doubles team of Ifill and Woodruff, and to Ray Suarez.

RAY SUAREZ: And, of course, our Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff are both in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Gwen, let me start with you. Did Hillary Rodham Clinton do something different in the last few days? Was there a pivot point in this campaign? Or was this just something that was missed by the public opinion research? What's the Clinton campaign saying?

GWEN IFILL: Well, let's start by talking about the public opinion research. I think that David and Mark noticed this, but I went back and looked it up. There were nine separate polls that showed Barack Obama leading this race by anywhere from 5 to 13 percentage points.

The Clinton people certainly had internal polling that supported that notion. They were very depressed.

I've been talking to them all week. They were certainly bracing for bad news.

Now, what they're saying -- and who knows, but this is what they're saying -- is that when Hillary Clinton betrayed herself, betrayed that emotion yesterday, it wasn't exactly tears. But when she choked up when talking about what a hard time this campaign had been and how tired she was, that that somehow appealed to a lot of these late-deciders.

We found out a lot of people didn't decide here in New Hampshire who they were voting for until the end. Those people were not reflected in any polls. So this is what the campaign is saying, that they got back on her game.

When she says she found her voice, when she made the comment in her acceptance speech just now that she wants to give America the kind of comeback that New Hampshire gave her, that was also alluding back to 1992 when her husband called himself the comeback kid when he came in second to Paul Tsongas in that race.

Now, Bill Clinton was a big factor in the last few days. He was generally considered by many people not to be very helpful. But there's no way to measure it until we start looking at these numbers in great detail tomorrow where he helped, where she helped, and where this incredible gender turnout, which the Clinton people were playing to, finally helped.

RAY SUAREZ: Well, you mentioned that even they were bracing for very bad news today. Word started to trickle out of the Clinton campaign that there was going to be some rescheduling, some rethinking, some restructuring. Now that the good news has come, are they starting to back off those words?

GWEN IFILL: Well, some of those words were overstated and not exactly proved. The only thing that the Clinton administration -- the only thing that the Clinton campaign said today they were going to do for sure was bring on board Maggie Williams, the senator's former White House chief of staff, and bring on Doug Sosnik, who was a former adviser.

Didn't say what roles they were going to play, didn't say campaign managers heads were rolling. That was what a lot of reporters were saying.

I do think that what you were really trying to figure out here is whether the good news means that they'll stop and take stock in a different way tomorrow than they would have today. I think that's a safe bet.

Judy, what's the McCain campaign saying about how they put together their victory tonight?

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, I'll answer that, but, first, I have to tell you, Ray, that the people in all the Republican campaigns are talking about what's happened over on the Democratic side.

It has not gone unnoticed. It's a head-turning result for all the reasons you've been discussing tonight on the program. And it means recalculating and calculating again for these Republicans.

The McCain people -- Gwen just used the term "comeback kid" for Hillary Clinton. We heard that term from John McCain tonight. He said, "I feel a little strange using the term 'kid,' but, yes, I'm the comeback kid."

In his case, eight years after he won New Hampshire, and earlier this year having his campaign virtually collapse, most people wrote his campaign off. He had spent the money that he had. He had to lay off all but just the bare bones staff.

And the people working for him today through Iowa, particularly through New Hampshire, on a shoestring, and he still managed to pull this off.

They are saying that it means the message resonates, that he will keep America safe, that he's the candidate of national security, and, frankly, that he's still liked here in New Hampshire.

RAY SUAREZ: Judy, Gwen, thank you both.