Written by: Beck

Finally. Both conventions are over. I, as you might predict if you take a look at how many pages I have written on the two conventions, am exhausted.

My overall scorecard: speakers overall: B -- some of the speakers were forgettable. The best speakers were front loaded into the first night, which wasn't even televised. Schwarzenegger was the only really memorable part of night 2, and Zell Miller was the only memorable part of night 3. Tonight wasn't anything special apart from Bush.

Bush's speech: A -- the speech ran long, but it didn't feel long, which is key. The disruptions from protesters were a net negative, but that wasn't Bush's fault. Also, he handled the disturbances very well. Furthermore, his delivery was excellent, and should serve to drive into people's mind that Bush isn't the poor speaker that he's often characterized as. His message was specific and unmistakable. He hit issues solidly, covered the whole spectrum, and presented a broad number of definite, concrete policy plans.

In other news, tomorrow, September 3, will be INCITE's 6 month blogiversary. When Answerman and I started this site, we envisioned it as a place where we could rant and vent our frustration with the modern political system. I never really imagined that I'd still be at it so thoroughly and ferociously six months after. Since then, we've added three more writers, and covered far more material than I'd ever imagined. I correspond with numerous other bloggers, and we've become a part of a much larger community than I'd even realized originally existed. Today we get hundreds of readers every day, and that's a really cool feeling. So to every one of our regular readers, to everyone who has linked us, and for all the positive feedback, thank you all.

Things are getting much busier for me. I've been sans job for the past four months, and have just secured myself a new position at a new company. I'm looking forward to it, but it's going to be a lot of work, and I'm going to be moving around the country a lot. I won't be able to consistently post with the regularity of the past, but I fully intend to continue giving INCITE as much effort and time as I can. So again, thank you for coming, reading, and sticking around.