Reliability of Voter Forums

I just finished watching the N.H. presidential forum, which I thought went very well. The candidates were very articulate, very "up on their numbers," to quote one of the Fox News Channel reporters. But then they showed the N.H. panel analysis. What got me is that the almost entire crowd pulled for Romney, when Romney did not stand as well, and was very vague in his responses. When showing the rating of the candidates speech, Romney's went up high when he was speaking of the need for change in Washington. But there was no plan, only the declaration of the need for change. One woman said in ciriticism of Mike Huckabee that she wanted a president and not a Baptist pastor. Most of the room raised their hands when asked who thought he identified to much with his faith (Come on, red state!). The thing is, Religion or faith in no way came up during the forum. Does this denote a previous bias against Huckabee, and does this also denote that if the people are biased against a particular individual, that these voter panel ratings are really reliable?