You’ve got to give some credit to the voters of New Hampshire.

They’re feisty and not easily fooled by nasty partisan tricks, unfeasible promises and extravagant, big-bucks campaigning. They’re largely independent (both literally and figuratively), and — most importantly — they turned out in droves for Tuesday night’s New Hampshire primary.

And they voted for surging Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain, handing him an impressive and very substantial lead over Texas Gov. George W. Bush, who had already been anointed by many pundits and pollsters as the GOP’s nominee. These talking heads seemed to forget that there were still other candidates in the race.

McCain received 49 percent of the vote, compared to Bush’s 30 percent.

And thanks to New Hampshire voters, there’s now an even tighter race between the two Republicans. McCain flew into South Carolina, the site of the nation’s next primary, at 3 this morning, ecstatic from his win and ready to show Southern that he’s a formidable candidate.

The message: The aura of inevitability around Bush has been shattered — at least for now.

And while it’s true that Bush might take South Carolina, which has long been known to vote for the establishment’s candidate, let’s savor the McCain win. Let’s take some lessons from the voters of New Hampshire, who went for a candidate with a vision instead of a candidate with the famous name.

McCain and New Hampshire have given the traditional Republican establishment quite a wake-up call, and hopefully, the rest of the country, and South Carolina, is going to take notice.

As for the Democratic race, there was another, albeit smaller, surprise. Former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley lost by a very narrow margin to Vice President Al Gore, a race in which Gore came out on top, 52 percent to 47 percent.

Bradley had lead in the New Hampshire polls for a long time, then trailed after his Iowa Caucus loss and then slowly caught up to Gore. Too little, too late.

But one probably wouldn’t have guessed that Bradley lost by watching his concession speech, in which he promised that he’s not going anywhere and he’ll continue his campaign.

Bradley’s battle against Gore has suddenly become a more difficult task, but let’s hope he sticks it out and keeps in the race.

For, as the McCain and Bush saga has proven, it’s always a more interesting race when there’s a challenge and an exchange of ideas, rather than just one candidate who acts as if he already has the nomination.

Iowa State Daily Editorial Board: Sara Ziegler, Greg Jerrett, Kate Kompas, Carrie Tett and David Roepke.