Lesson one: political conventions are deeply creepy events. Wading through thousands upon thousands of people who regard a monstrous little mutant like George W. Bush as the messiah was enough to make even the rabid leftism of the Thursday night leftblogger party at The Tank a relief.

Lesson two: It’s time to change the picture on the front page, because several bloggers I was meeting for the first time said words to the effect of “oh, you don’t look nearly as goofy/awful in person as in that photo.”

Lesson three: I’m that much more impressed by people who do daily beat reporting. Let’s be honest, most of what I do is only in the loosest sense journalism, and it sure isn’t reporting. Maybe I’ll make a few phone calls to flesh out what I’ve turned up on line, but for the most part I’m scanning the news doing analysis from my desk. Running around finding out what’s worth covering while it’s happening, walking up to strangers and trying to get them to open up to you while you’re scribbling in your little notebook… tiring stuff. I don’t know if I could do that full time.