BY modern American standards it was a very minor crisis, but a bizarre hostage-taking episode at one of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign offices in New Hampshire on Friday offered the former first lady an unexpected opportunity to display her leadership qualities.

Clinton was far from the scene and never at risk from a mentally unstable man who eventually surrendered to police after holding three campaign workers hostage. Yet her calm demeanour and authoritative response to a potentially ugly drama was yesterday earning her widespread praise.

Clinton followed the incident from her home in Washington, then flew to New Hampshire to meet the workers once they were released. A local man identified as Leeland Eisenberg was taken into custody and the bomb he claimed to have strapped to his chest turned out to be warning flares.

The incident followed a series of bitter exchanges among presidential candidates of both parties over who is the best equipped to lead America at a time of terrorist threats. Clinton has been mocked for suggesting that her experience as first lady qualified her for the presidency. “She has never run anything,” noted Mitt Romney, the former Republican governor of Massachusetts.

Yet several campaign analysts noted yesterday that Clinton did not put a foot wrong as the hostage drama unfolded. “There was a sense that this was a dress rehearsal of how she was going to deal with . . . [a] crisis as president,” noted Robert Thompson, a media specialist at Syracuse University.

Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, told the Politico.com website that Hillary managed to “look and sound presidential” as she joined police at a New Hampshire press conference.

After accusations that Clinton had planted favourable questions at meetings and debates, Sabato noted that Friday’s incident was “not contrived . . . that distinguishes it from 99% of what happens in the campaign season”.

The praise came at a useful moment for Clinton, who is facing an unusual challenge next weekend. All Democratic eyes will be on the presidential campaign debut of Oprah Winfrey, the television chat-show queen who is lending her formidable reputation to Senator Barack Obama’s White House bid.

Oprah will campaign with Obama in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, all key states whose votes in January are likely to decide the Democratic nomination. Obama is hoping that Winfrey may sway some of the undecided women voters who are widely regarded as the key to this year’s campaign.

The latest opinion polls put Obama narrowly ahead in Iowa for the first time last week, but Clinton remained 11 points clear in New Hampshire. Last week she was endorsed by Barbra Streisand, but with a month to go before voting begins, it was a less well-known name who appeared to be Clinton’s most valuable ally.

Governor John Lynch, New Hampshire’s popular Democrat governor, has declared himself neutral in the presidential race, but that has not stopped his wife, Susan, joining the Clinton campaign. She is a paediatrician who last week declared Clinton “the best candidate to deliver the changes we need”. Her voice may count more than Oprah’s in a state that Clinton has to win to avoid a potentially fatal double defeat in the opening votes of the primary season.

Clinton has tailored much of her campaign strategy towards courting previously apathetic women voters whom polls show to be more likely to vote if a woman is on the presidential ballot. She has announced plans to expand paid pregnancy leave, prevent job discrimination against pregnant women and increase childcare funding.

On the campaign trail she singles out the stories of elderly women - some in their eighties and nineties - who flock to her meetings in the hope of seeing a female president before they die.

Obama has been profiting from lingering concern that Clinton is too divisive a figure to beat the Republicans next November, but his rise has not been as dramatic or conclusive as his supporters had hoped when, after only two years in the US Senate, he decided to turn his widely praised book, The Audacity of Hope, into a presidential manifesto.

Enter Winfrey, portrayed as the one celebrity with the proven clout to shift American tastes overnight. With Clinton basking in the glow of her hostage success, the stage is set for an intriguing showdown between two of the most powerful women in America.

Hillary Clinton's official campaign website

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