CONCORD, N.H. -- Arizona Sen. John McCain has been projected by The Associated Press as the winner of the New Hampshire Republican primary, while Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton dueled in the Democratic contest.

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"I hate to use to the word kid, but I think we showed the people of this country what a real comeback looks like," the Arizona senator told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday, savoring victory in the state he won eight years ago during his first White House bid.

"I'm grateful to the people of New Hampshire. I'm committed to keeping this country safe, and we're going to move on to Michigan and South Carolina and win the nomination," he added.

It was, indeed, a stunning comeback for the four-term senator who went from presumed front-runner a year ago to seemingly finished last summer after his campaign all but imploded. McCain not only stayed alive, but now heads into the next contest Jan. 15 in Michigan with momentum and the potential to raise much-need money.

The economy and the war in Iraq were the top issues in both party primaries, according to interviews with voters leaving their polling places after casting ballots in the most wide-open presidential race in at least a half-century.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who won last week's Iowa caucuses, was running third.

Even before the votes were counted, Clinton's campaign appeared to be bracing for a second straight defeat at the hands of Obama.

Officials said her aides were considering whether to effectively concede the next two contests - caucuses in Nevada on Jan. 19 and a South Carolina primary a week later - and instead try to regroup in time for a 22-state round of contests on Feb. 5.

These officials also said a campaign shake-up was in the works, with longtime Clinton confidante Maggie Williams poised to come aboard to help sharpen the former first lady's message. Other personnel additions are expected, according to these officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity while discussing strategy.

Obama, who won the leadoff Iowa caucuses last week, looked for an endorsement from the powerful Culinary Workers union in Nevada in the days ahead. South Carolina's Democratic electorate is heavily black and likely to go for the most viable black presidential candidate in history.

Independents Favor Obama

Independents found New Hampshire's Democratic primary the most attractive place to vote on Tuesday and gave Obama a boost. Women, lower-income voters and senior citizens favored Clinton, exit polls showed. Immigration was a defining issue in the Republican contest, as McCain far outdistanced the field among voters friendlier to illegal immigrants while Romney scored among voters who want them deported.

Registered independents could choose between the two parties' primaries, and early exit poll data indicated six in 10 opted for the Democratic contest. As in the Iowa caucuses five nights earlier, more than four in 10 independents supported Obama, far more than voted for any of the other Democrats, according to preliminary results of surveys conducted for The Associated Press and television networks.

Obama was even stronger in New Hampshire than in Iowa among the youngest voters, winning two-thirds of those age 18-24. Clinton and Edwards fared much better among 25- to 29-year-olds in New Hampshire than in Iowa, where more than half of them backed Obama.

In the Republican race, three in 10 GOP primary voters would offer illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship and half of them supported McCain, who had plummeted in preprimary polls last summer for supporting that idea.

Two in 10 Republican primary voters Tuesday favored allowing illegal immigrants to stay as temporary workers and they split evenly between McCain and Romney, who has taken a tougher line and attacked McCain on the issue. But McCain lagged well behind Romney among the half of Republican voters who said illegal immigrants should be deported.

McCain also found greater support among GOP voters who disapprove of the war in Iraq. Romney narrowly led among those who approve the war.

The results are from partial samples in exit polls Tuesday in 50 precincts around New Hampshire for The Associated Press and television networks by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International. The surveys included 1,296 Democratic primary voters and 905 Republican primary voters. The sampling error margin was plus or minus 4 percentage points for the Democratic primary survey, 5 points for the Republican.

Link: Local N.H. Coverage

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