by PETER SURPRENANT
Observer staff

MANCHESTER, N.H. — In the world of primary politics, the spin never stops. In fact, even before the candidates had stepped off the stage Saturday night at the ABC/Facebook debates, representatives from all the participating campaigns fill the practice gym here at Saint Anselm College to give their own take of the evening’s events with the goal of influencing how the press will cover the event.

The spin room is an area of controlled chaos with a combination of television crews and big-name journalists jockeying for position to interview the spin people from each of the campaigns. The desire for information in the 24-hour news cycle has fueled an entire culture of spin where the news is not only reported, but interpreted and put into a greater context in an effort to hype and provide more in-depth analysis of events as they happen.

Regardless of how each candidate performs in the event, the role of the spinster is to create an impression that his or her candidate was ultimately the winner. Sometimes this job means providing justifications for blunders that may have occurred, while at other times just repeating talking points that emphasize policy positions will do. Whatever the situation, these operatives play an important role in shaping the way that the media covers events and ultimately the way the news will be received by the voters.

Former Republican Presidential candidate Tom Tancredo was there on behalf of Mitt Romney, who had the tough job of defending Mitt on one of his more challenging evenings. “He won because he was the focal point of the debate,” Romney adviser and Washington lawyer Ben Ginsburg told Professor Dotty Lynch. Most of the reporters I spoke to just laughed about the Romney campaign’s attempt to turn the pounding he took into something positive.

Current Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick was there for Barack Obama, and Elizabeth Edwards was spinning for her husband. The celebrity status of some of the spinners was helpful in drawing crowds, even if they weren’t going to tell the reporters any new information. Joe Trippi, Howard Dean’s 2004 campaign manager and now spinning for John Edwards, gave us an on-camera spin. He contended that Edwards was the real agent of change.

Ron Paul was the only candidate who handled his own spin, perhaps evidence of the straight-talking, tell-it-how-it-is style of campaigning that has connected with so many disillusioned voters who would otherwise be turned off to politics. Underdog candidates such as Congressman Paul use the free press that the spin room provides more as a platform for a post-debate interview that otherwise may never happen.

2008 has seen campaigns place an unprecedented focus on trying to promote favorable coverage in the media. The spin room is the perfect opportunity to observe how each campaign would ideally like the media to cover the event. However, it remains the job of individual journalists to cut through all the spin and find the real story — a task that may prove increasingly more challenging in the future.