After tonight, the lights in convention centers in Tampa, Fla., and Charlotte, N.C., are finally out, and I can’t help but imagine a cartoon version of Carol Burnett sweeping the confetti from the stages.

Meanwhile, Clint Eastwood is still talking to a chair that Joe Biden believes the GOP has chained to the floor.

OK, so maybe I’m more irritable than most, but I’m not a big fan of convention season. As an American, a journalist and a voter, I watch the key convention speeches and grumble from the couch with bipartisan bitterness. But I’ll watch President Barack Obama’s speech tonight just as I watched Mitt Romney’s with the jaundiced eye of a man who watches politicians professionally.