Iowa, you'll recall, was uncontested, so New Hampshire was the big event on the Democratic side. Bill Clinton had been leading and was expected to win, but one of the notorious "bimbo eruptions" occurred just before the primary---this one I think involved Gennifer Flowers---and Tsongas wound up benefitting, winning the primary (possibly due to his representation of neighboring state Massachusetts, from which southern New Hampshire gets its television signals).
Yet a funny thing happened: Clinton ate Tsongas's lunch. Traditionally, the contestants would yield the first acceptance speech to the primary winner. Clinton disregarded this custom and accepted second place before Tsongas had gone on, and the Arkansas governor declared "it shows I can take a punch... I'm the Comeback Kid." It's commonly assumed that this shoplifting-of-the-momentum helped Clinton recover, adn he went on to win the nomination and the presidency.
You might remember that Lyndon Johnson, who did not seek the 1968 renomination, died two days after he would have left office, had he won that year. You probably don't remember, however, that Paul Tsongas died, of non-Hodgkins lymphona, two days before his first term would have ended, had he won. As for Clinton, I trust no epilogue to his story is necessary.
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