The conventions have come and gone. My impressions:

•The media expected a bunt and the infield was drawn in, but Sarah Palin hit a home run. And if that’s the last time that metaphor is used I’ll be happy. Besides, she’s a hockey mom. She shoots, she scores!

•Still think anyone who attacks this “pit bull in lipstick” will look like a big meanie?

•With Palin and Barack Obama dazzling their respective audiences and energizing the race, it’s safe to say that change has become more important than experience. So can we stop with the tedious discussions about which of the two neophytes has the better resume? I want to know what change the candidates have in mind and how they plan to do it.

•Remember that “Saturday Night Live” skit with David Spade playing the apathetic, never-impressed receptionist? When President Bush popped up on the big screen, I thought:

“And you are? And this is about?”

•The two conventions were brought to you by you. Each convention got $16 million in taxpayer money. Homeland Security spent $50 million protecting everyone. And they mock the Bridge to Nowhere.

•Good line by Palin when she rapped Obama for saying one thing in Scranton and another in San Francisco. But she’s not immune to this.

She was for a federally funded bridge to connect Ketchikan to Gravina, an island of 50 residents but also an airport that is only accessible by ferry. When a budget watchdog group tagged it the Bridge to Nowhere, she said the term was insulting. When it became obvious the bridge was dead in the water, she came out against it but kept the federal money for other projects.

Here she is on Wednesday: “I told the Congress ‘thanks, but no thanks,’ for that Bridge to Nowhere. If our state wanted a bridge, we’d build it ourselves.”

Big applause in Minnesota, but the mayor of Nowhere, Bob Weinstein, was angry:

“People are learning that she pandered to us by saying, ‘I’m for this’ … and then when she found it was politically advantageous for her nationally, abruptly she starts using the very term that she said was insulting.”

•The cries of “sexism” aimed at anyone who dared criticize Palin were amusing. Guess supporters didn’t think she could handle herself because she’s a woman. As cameras panned the crowd, some of her defenders wore buttons that read: “Hottest candidate. Coolest State” and “Hoosiers for the hot chick!”

But please forgive them. It’s their first time complaining about sexism.

•Attacks on McCain are ageist. Attacks on Palin are sexist. Attacks on Obama are racist. Bummer for Biden.