Hillary Clinton has just gone one better than New Hampshire's original "comeback kid" - her husband Bill, whose second place in the 1992 primary kick-started his own floundering presidential campaign.

Her extraordinary victory here was not predicted by the highly-paid pundits, pollsters and political consultants who have been happily surfing a wave of Oba-mania during the past week.

Never in this history of American political endeavour will so much humble pie be eaten by so many at breakfast tables today.

In retrospect, perhaps, we should all have remembered that New Hampshire is "Clinton country".

Sixteen years ago it had been his turn to defy conventional wisdom in the Granite State. Along with other candidates, Mr Clinton had skipped Iowa all together because the local Senator Tom Harkin was standing.

From New Year's Day to election night, on February 18, 1992, the young Arkansas governor spoke at rallies, visited shopping malls and cajoled voters in every coffee shop he could find - projecting an Obama-esque vision of hope for the future.

By mid-January he was leading polls in state's Democratic race, with 29 per cent support, ahead of Paul Tsongas with 17 and Bob Kerrey on 16.

And then came Gennifer Flowers, claiming to have had a 12-year affair with him. He denied it all, of course, but she disclosed tapes of secretly recorded intimate phone calls with the presidential candidate.

A couple of Arkansas state police officers who had formerly guarded the Governor backed her up. A man known as "Stuttering John" briefly became famous by interrupting Ms Flowers's press conference to ask if Governor Clinton had used a condom, engaged in a threesome or if she was planning to sleep with any other presidential candidates.

Hillary Clinton was wheeled out for the first time to join in the rebuttal, telling reporters that when her husband and Ms Flowers called each other "honey" in the tapes, that was just how people talked in Arkansas.

Bill and Hillary Clinton sat down for a dramatic '60 Minutes' interview that was aired on Super Bowl Sunday, professing the strength of their relationship while holding hands with eachother.

There were further controversies: liberals blasted Mr Clinton for authorising the execution of Ricky Ray Rector, a self-lobotomised killer who saved a slice of pecan pie to be eaten before bedtime on the day of his lethal injection - not realising his death would come first.

Conservatives accused him of being a Vietnam draft-dodger at Oxford. He was ridiculed and condemned in equal measure by both sides for saying he had smoked pot - but had not inhaled.

The night before the election, the polls were signalling a distant third place for Mr Clinton. His staff assumed he would be out of the race within 24 hours.

But he, like his wife 16 years later, defied expectations. He came second, eight points behind Mr Tsongas, but good enough to declare himself the "come-back kid" - a line spinned with precision and aplomb through the next day.

Mr Clinton went on to win the White House that year and only later admitted in his autobiography that he had sexual relations with Ms Flowers on one occasion.

As for Ms Flowers herself, she is seriously considering voting for Mrs Clinton, if she gets the chance. “I can’t help but want to support my own gender, and she’s as experienced as the others," she said recently.

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