The tune that accompanied Barack Obama’s arrival on Tuesday night at what was expected to be another victory rally said it all – it was Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours”. The senator’s organisers had clearly not had time to adjust the format following the shock announcement of Hillary Clinton’s win a few moments earlier.

Nobody, including the Clinton campaign, expected Mr Obama to be defeated in New Hampshire. But the reddest faces were among the polling agencies, who on Tuesday morning projected an Obama victory margin of up to 13 percentage points, and the media, which had all but written off Mrs Clinton’s prospects for achieving the Democratic nomination.