The big news on Tuesday was not merely that Hillary Rodham Clinton scored an unexpected comeback victory. Emerging from that win was something more durable — a road map that could guide the former First Lady to the Democratic presidential nomination.

The margin in the New Hampshire primary was razor-thin. But she clearly beat Barack Obama among core Democratic voters, the very bloc that will grow in influence as the nomination fight continues in the coming weeks.

Strip away the independents who made up about four in 10 participants in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, thanks to the state’s open-balloting rules, and Clinton outpaced Obama 45 per cent to 34 per cent, according to an exit poll conducted for a media consortium.

Moreover, she beat the Illinois senator among women — a crucial group for her and one that she lost in last week’s Iowa caucuses — and among lower-income households and older voters.

“This is an amazing comeback story for her over the course of a relatively few days,” said Mark Mellman, a Democratic strategist who advised John F Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign.

If her advantage among Democrats holds true in the flurry of primaries set for February 5, Clinton could regain the traction that seemed lost when last week’s defeat in Iowa ended her yearlong reign as the Democratic front-runner.

Only registered Democrats can take part in a number of the February 5 contests. Non-Democrats are not welcome. For example, in voting in Connecticut, Arizona and in Clinton’s home state of New York, potential strongholds for Clinton that each control more nomination delegates than the relative handful from Iowa, New Hampshire and other earlier states.

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