Graphic: the road ahead

Hillary Clinton will head to Nevada which votes on January 15 and then South Carolina on January 26 hoping to halt Mr Obama's momentum. She is also focusing heavily on February 5 – "Super Tuesday" – a blowout day of primary contests when 22 states go to the polls. She will make an aggressive push for the big, delegate-rich states, such as California and New York, where she is senator. It is a strategy that has been forced upon her in the face of Mr Obama's extraordinary momentum.

Mr Obama, meanwhile, hopes to push for an all-out victory in South Carolina, where half the Democratic primary electorate is African-American. Blacks in this first-in-the-South primary had been wary of backing Mr Obama – fearful that because of his race he could not win – but polls suggesting they are breaking for him, and away from Mrs Clinton.

Mrs Clinton's new, "national" strategy reflects the high-risk gamble being taken by Rudy Giuliani, once the Republican frontrunner, who has largely ignored the early states, and thus has lost a great deal of ground. He is banking all on victory in Florida on January 29, a win he hopes will propel him onto big gains on February 5.

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Mike Huckabee, the Republican winner in Iowa and former Arkansas governor, is instead pouring huge resources into South Carolina, which holds its Republican primary on January 19, where his brand of evangelical populism is popular among Southern conservatives there.

John McCain and Mitt Romney are first focused on Michigan on January 15, a state where they both have strengths. Mr McCain won the state in the 2000 Republican primary.

Mr Romney's father was Michigan's governor. Mr McCain is also hoping that after South Carolina destroyed his presidential hopes in 2000, he can return to the Palmetto State this time and vanquish the ghosts of eight years ago. No Republican has ever won the nomination without winning South Carolina and the state is again shaping as critical.

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