Convention time’s over. Get out your sneakers for the final stretch run!

But before we move on for the next nine weeks, a little insight to convention time in our corner of the world. The conventions are a time when the TV here in the Times-Herald newsroom is on something other than sports and part of our focus was pointed to Denver, Colo., and St. Paul, Minn., for the Democrat and Republican national conventions.

On CNN for the Democrats and on FOX News for the Republicans, we watched the political hoopla in full fervor and irritated my colleague Sally Petty while Todd Lancaster and I argued back and forth about who’s better, mostly with bad jokes and below-the-belt puns better left for the Internet.

I offered Sally my iPod, but she is used to drowning both of us out. Pat Morrison, always our maternal force, had to separate us. But really, who won? Who lost? Who stunk up the joint (Tim Kaine, Mitt Romney) and who knocked it out of the park (Teddy Kennedy, Sarah Palin)? Let’s go through my winners and losers of this year’s convention gaiety.

Running mates

The picks: Obama picked Sen. Joe Biden, a Delaware senator whose foreign policy experience could be up there with McCain’s. McCain picked Palin, a tough Alaskan governor who has McCain’s penchant for reform.

Winner: Obama. Palin, who according to Todd looks like an older Mary Ann from Gilligan’s Island, does have some baggage and really no experience. But she gave the best speech at the convention, and if she doesn’t win in November, the GOP has its 2012 candidate.

This will make the most interesting vice-presidential debate in years.

Speakers

The picks: Obama brought out the Dems’ big guns in Teddy Kennedy, Bill and Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Al Gore and even his wife Michelle. McCain had Joe Liberman, Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani and President George W. Bush speaking for him. Who to choose?

Winner: McCain. Hold on there, Obamaniacs. McCain and the GOP had a serious handicap convention week from a storm with a Swedish-sounding name — Gustav. That hurricane forced the GOP to take a day off their schedule and, at least on the first real day Tuesday, a more somber tone. But, the more serious implication of Gustav was that it took some of the GOP’s rising stars in Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Texas Gov. Rick Perry out of the starting lineup. It took until Wednesday with Palin’s speech and a “Raising McCain” theme song to get any real energy.

For the Dems, the Clintons brought down the house, but they saved Gore, now a Nobel Peace Prize winner, as the warmup for Thursday? It was like 2004, redux.

Memorable moment

The picks: Hillary Clinton walking on the floor and asking that Obama be declared the candidate by acclimation versus Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech with clever puns and a delivery that was part-mom, part-bulldog.

Winner: Palin. Let’s make a mention here of Clinton’s speech on Tuesday night. The DNC gave her a night by herself, and she carried it. If there were doubt that her supporters were defecting, she made it clear it’s not her fault.