In a campaign where the aura of Barack Obama shines with stellar power, the ferocious passion that surrounds Hillary Clinton is too often overlooked.

But not last night. After a long, hard month in which she suffered a dozen consecutive defeats, her supporters finally had a chance to scream in victory and vindication or, at least, defiance.

In the fetid atmosphere of the masonic hall where they gathered in Columbus last night, their mood was best summed up by Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the black congresswoman from Ohio who has stuck with Mrs Clinton through thick and, more recently, thin.

"All I have to say is: I told you so!" she shouted. Ohio Governor Ted Strickland declared: "I want to say to you and say to America - let her continue this fight!"

A race like a crackpot Dynasty

The contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton matches any fiction

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Background

• The ascent of Barack Obama, Mr Charisma

• Decay, jobs and guns fall under the spotlight

• Free trade: Clinton/Obama's mistakes

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The night began with a blues band playing and the crowd watching a giant screen showing the results rolling in. Mr Obama scored his expected win in liberal Vermont and the earliest returns showed him well ahead in Texas.

But slowly, surely, she was clawing back that lead. Mrs Clinton won in little Rhode Island - her first victory in 13 contests - and was leading here in Ohio. Maybe, just maybe, but there were still nervous questions about Dallas and Cleveland, cities with large black populations where votes had not been counted. Every percentage point she gained in Texas was greeted with wild celebrations and more nail biting. She was ten behind, then seven, then six, five, four, three, two and one.

When it reached a tie, a sense of belief spread around the room. Suddenly she was ahead in Texas - narrowly - but she stayed there. Ohio was declared to be a second Clinton win on the night and the candidate herself was said to be on her way from the hotel.

Mrs Clinton arrived, dressed in fiery red, with confetti being blasted out across the room. "For everybody who has ever been counted out and refused to be knocked out, for everyone who has stumbled and stood right back up and for everybody who works hard and never gives up - this one's for you," she said.

Her campaign has reinvented itself as that of an underdog: hard-working, ready for a scrap, resentful and with a mean streak running through it. The crowd chanted: "Yes, she will" - a deliberate counterpoint to Mr Obama's slogan of "yes, we can". Jonathan Mantz, her finance chief, said: “Each time people think we’re down, Hillary has found ways to come back up.”

Connie Emmons, 67, held out her hands to show they were raw with clapping. "People were infatuated with Obama," she said. "But when he had a little bit of stuff thrown at him in the last few days, he began to look like just another Chicago politician."

Her daughter, Cathy McBride, explained how she had lost her home in a mortgage foreclosure, adding: "Hillary is the one who can fix it. She knows how to make things work. The rich can afford Obama, it's the poor like us who cannot."

Mrs Clinton won a battle last night, not the war. Mr Obama is still ahead in the elected delegate count with a lead that was hardly dented by Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island. He cannot be caught unless Mrs Clinton wins by improbable margins in all the remaining contests.

But nor can he clinch the nomination without support from the Democratic party elite of super-delegates, many of whom are biding their time to see which way to jump.

Mrs Clinton will now fight on to Pennsylvania next month, perhaps to Puerto Rico in June and maybe even to the nominating convention in August. Mr Obama must still be the favourite to win in the end, but he may have to limp over the finishing line looking over his shoulder at a Clinton campaign that smells blood.

He has weaknesses. And she will relish finding them

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