Leslie Bradshaw on C-SPAN, originally uploaded by jessesaves.

I watched all eight nights of 2008 convention programming from the best seat in the house — my house. I was offered credentials for both the Democrat and Republican conventions, but turned down the opportunity to go. After being on the ground in Boston and New York in 2004, I had no desire to sit through two four-day infomercials.

Being home away from the parties afforded me the time to pick a few winners and losers. They include politicians, pundits, the press and people I know.

Winners:

• C-SPAN. Working with Leslie Bradshaw of New Media Strategies (pictured above), the cable network for political junkies provided the most balanced and tech-friendly coverage of the conventions. My only complaint is that the station doesn’t air in HD. Bradshaw’s creation of the Convention Hubs served as a go-to place for bloggers and pundits to get the latest buzz about #dnc08 and #rnc08. With her nightly C-SPAN updates, Leslie showed she is a budding TV star, too

• Hillary Clinton. Her orange pantsuit wasn’t my favorite, but her speech was right on the money. She produced the same kind of excitement as Palin did for Republicans. Any hard feelings Democrats might have had about her were erased, setting the stage for a comeback in 2012 if Obama were to lose. When she was done, it was clear Obama had made a huge political blunder by not selecting her as his VP

• RedState. I’m biased because I’m a contributor. But in the span of just one week, the conservative blog scored three links on the Drudge Report, including video of former DNC chairman Bob Fowler saying the God was on the side of Democrats for sending Hurricane Gustav to disrupt the GOP convention. Needless to say, traffic has been through the roof.

• Sarah Palin. This one is obvious. The brilliant rollout by the McCain people. The great introductory speech last Friday. The buildup of excitement as the week progressed. The grand-slam acceptance speech. What’s not like about the woman who reminds me of Ronald Reagan? She’s a natural and the sole reason this GOP ticket is rejuvenated.

• Twitter. I managed to say a lot in 140 characters over the past two weeks. The micro-blogging site was my source for reacting to the latest news and following what my friends had to say about it. Last Friday alone I churned out 90-some tweets in response to Palin. During the two-week period, I made many new friends — some conservative, some liberal and some journalists.

Losers:

• Andrew Sullivan. I should just ignore him, but with so many people piling on for his pathetic pro-Obama power trip, how could I resist? I recommend reading Ben Domenech (“Andrew Sullivan’s Descent into Madness”) and my colleague Conn Carroll (“The Sun Sets on The Atlantic”). No longer should this man ever be called a conservative.

• Barack Obama. His speech was merely OK — a typical stump speech. It was hardly post-partisan (for all the McCain attacks) and hardly transformational (for all the big government ideas). Despite the giant crowd at Invesco Field and styrofoam Greek columns behind him, Obama was overshadowed a mere 12 hours later when journalists foamed at the mouth for the latest news on McCain’s running mate. If there was a bounce, it won’t last. A new CBS News poll already has the race tied at 42%.

• CNN. Wolf Blitzer was a cheerleader for Barack Obama in Denver and an attack dog on Sarah Palin in St. Paul. From the moment Palin was nominated last Friday, CNN launched several vicious attacks, highlighted by Campbell Brown’s heated interview with Tucker Bounds. Fortunately, Palin seemed to win over most of the network’s analysts after her speech, a sign of just how good she is.

• Markos Moulitsas. The founder of Daily Kos looked like a fool for fanning the flames of conspiratorial leftists who aggressively pursued the kooky theory that Palin didn’t give birth to her son Trig. What’s worse is that mainstream media outlets picked up on the smear and ran with it. Hopefully they’ll think twice before relying on Daily Kos again — although I’m not counting on it.

• Mitt Romney. Widely expected to be the frontrunner in 2012 if John McCain faltered, Romney blew any chance of a comeback when he delivered an uninspiring speech Wednesday night. The hurdles were already high in the wake of Palin’s ascension, but they stand even taller after his lackluster performance. Mark Warner was an equal disappointment for Democrats.