The Conventions are now over. Time to focus on the upcoming election, issues and crime-related initiatives and injustices. All of TalkLeft's convention coverage can be accessed from these two links:

• TalkLeft's Republican Convention Coverage
• TalkLeft's Democratic Convention Coverage

Convention blogger aggregators are here and the Tank Bloggers are here

My immediate assessment: Conventions are good for rallying the troops, preaching to the choir and offering the opportunity to network and enjoy the comraderie of others sharing one's point of view. From a substantive or issues standpoint, they are fairly irrelevant. As to the impact on undecided voters, I will leave that call to the politcal experts and pollsters. The "bystander" interviews I conducted were not particularly insightful--so many just didn't care one way or the other. The one exception was the Planned Parenthood concert--that was totally focused on a substantive issue, every singer and comic and speaker addressed it, and it also was the best entertainment of the week.

Many thanks to TalkLeft's readers for enabling me to go to Boston and New York. I will send out thank you emails this weekend. It's good to be home.