January 8, 2012 Presidential Primary Debate in Concord, NH

I am a volunteer usher at the Capitol Center for the Arts in NH, where this event was held, and I was the orchestra level floor captain, responsible for all seating and logistics in the 1,000-seat orchestra where candidates' families and campaigns, selected press, and the general public were seated.  It's amazing the planning that goes into this kind of event, but it paid off; the event went very smoothly.  I'm working on a longer summary - hard to summarize such big events.  Probably 800-900 non campaign guests, all well-behaved, no heckling, only one boo (Newt, early on), some applause.  One woman sitting right behind Emcee David Gregory fell asleep; I noticed this on a monitor at the back of the theater and went down to talk to her during the first break; she denied it but it has been noted in a couple of places (Amanda Terkel & a post on Meet the Press FB site).  I agree ...that Huntsman won & Romney lost.  Newt kept his cool & got in some good jabs.  Romney was Teflon, but it was obvious; he seemed uncomfortable wearing the conservative mantle.  Huntsman had a good debate and one great moment when he jabbed Romney about a crack made last night that Huntsman was less than loyal because he worked for Obama (see story in link) but then immediately followed that by stating he was the only candidate who fully supported the Ryan budget plan.  Paul & Perry didn't seem to have much of an effect.  Santorum wasn't credible about gays and seemed pretty mean-spirited.  All seemed pretty pro-States' rights on issues like same sex marriage, abortion, etc., and all were pro-Right to Work (anti-union), altho all also praised unions' community work; they just didn't like union "big money" in Washington & elections (but I guess corporate "big money" is fine by them).   I thought moderators asked pretty good questions from NH voter-interest perspective.  Pro-union rally outside at beginning (one of the debate sponsors, Manchester Union Leader, is in protracted labor dispute), Occupy NH Primary apparently disrupted reporters getting to the "spin-room" after the debate.  One Occupy NH protester arrested for trying to enter w/o a ticket.