Analysts are this morning busy poring over turnout totals, or tapes of last Saturday night's debate and Hillary's "emotional moment" in an effort to find the place where she turned it all around. But what may have changed the dynamic in New Hampshire is a phenomenon we have seen before in presidential politics.

In 1980, every time Jimmy Carter appeared to be about to close the deal with Ted Kennedy in the Democratic primaries, Kennedy would turn around and win another primary. Perhaps voters wanted to punish Carter (hardly the scenario here); more likely, they didn't want the race to end, and so they voted, somewhat tactically and perhaps subconsciously, to let it continue.

That force may well have been at work last night, at least for enough voters to make a difference in a close race. In the 36 hours before the primary, the press was full of stories how Clinton might be forced to quit the contest and how Obama was on the verge of becoming unstoppable. (That those stories were false and full of bad analysis are beside the point.) Enough voters may well have decided that it was too early to crown Obama; he was too new, or Hillary deserved a second chance, or whatever. So they voted to let the race go on.

And so it does, thanks to New Hampshire.

To read Steven Stark's complete "Presidential Tote Board" blog, go to www.thephoenix.com/toteboard/