Bunch

People love Doris Kearns Goodwin's book on the Lincoln presidency, Team of Rivals. More important, Barack Obama loves it. But the book's claim that Abraham Lincoln revealed his "political genius" through the management of his wartime cabinet deserves a harder look. "Lincoln basically pulled in all the people who had been running against him into his cabinet," is the way Obama has summarized Goodwin's thesis. "Whatever personal feelings there were, the issue was how can we get this country through this time of crisis.

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER 1995: The Phillies from 1992 to 1995 were a collection of muscle-bound players who, when healthy and playing for something, could be a physically intimidating bunch. The cast of 1993's Macho Row - Darren Daulton, Dave Hollins, Pete Incaviglia, Lenny Dykstra - was starting to change in 1995, but the team's demeanor remained somewhere between cocky and nasty. Dykstra once said the team's physical presence alone was enough to beat some pitchers or some teams. "They look at us, and they say, 'This is a bunch we don't want to mess with,' " Dykstra said.

Jimmy Rollins could be back in the Phillies' lineup as early as tomorrow night against the San Francisco Giants. Finally. The Phillies have missed Rollins, who sprained his left ankle April 8 against the New York Mets at Shea Stadium. He has been on the disabled list since April 20. Last night, he went 0 for 3 with a walk and turned two double plays in a rehabilitation game for single-A Clearwater. Unless he suffers a setback before tomorrow night, he seems likely to return.

SO WILL Bunch believes ABC "disgraced the American voters, and in fact even disgraced democracy itself. " And they did that by asking the kind of questions to their beloved Marxist candidate that they've been asking Republicans for all of my adult life. People like Bunch are a disgrace to democracy, and to journalism by choosing sides, and whining like stuck pigs when their chosen one gets asked hard questions. Please have the deranged Mr. Bunch send his condemnation of debate moderators asking Mitt Romney to defend actions of his church that took place more than 100 years ago. Try to imagine the outrage had Romney's pastor of 20-plus years routinely attacked blacks for their high crime rate, low graduation rate, 70-plus percent illegitimate birth rate, many of whom will end up in prison.

Promises, promises. During Nutter's campaign, he released more than a dozen policy papers - papers so detailed that the footnotes have footnotes. Here are some of his key promises. Only time will tell if he can keep them. Public safety On day one, will declare crime emergencies in the worst neighborhoods, where cops will be able to halt gatherings, stop traffic and set curfews. Within three years will hire 500 more police officers. Will use "stop and frisk" policing more aggressively to get illegal guns off the streets.

Amid the usual locker-room banter and occasional high jinks in which football players engage to break the tedium of yet another practice day, the youngest player on the Eagles' roster sat solemnly facing his stall. Victor Abiamiri was playing his own game - the waiting game. Abiamiri, 21, a sculpted 6-foot-4, 267-pound defensive end from Notre Dame, was the second player the Eagles drafted in April, the 57th taken overall in the second round. But his selection was mostly overlooked because of all the hullabaloo over Kevin Kolb, the quarterback the Birds chose earlier in the same round to the surprise of just about everyone, including Donovan McNabb.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - If you'd care to look on the bright side, the Phillies were in much more dire straits when they trailed the New York Mets by seven games with 17 remaining. Look where they are this morning - champions of the National League East and hosting a playoff series starting on Wednesday. Heck, it won't even take the greatest collapse in the history of the sport for the Eagles to get out the hole they've dug for themselves after last night's 16-3 loss to the New York Giants.

As a veteran of many Andy Reid day-after news conferences, Daily News sports writer Paul Domowitch has learned to read between the lines when the Eagles' coach speaks. Each week, we will attempt to interpret some of Big Red's comments: ON THE TWO COSTLY MUFFED PUNTS: What he said: "Obviously, we thought we could get it done with those guys we had there and it didn't work out this game. But that's my responsibility to have it right and I didn't get this one right. " What he meant: "Hey, my initial plan was to put Max Jean-Gilles back there on punts.

Randy Moss caught a long pass and stepped into the end zone, flashing the dominant playmaking ability that made him one of the NFL's most feared wide receivers. Looks like it's time for opposing defenses to get scared again. Moss caught nine passes from Tom Brady for 183 yards and a touchdown in his New England debut, leading the Patriots to a 38-14 victory over the host New York Jets yesterday. The Pats' Ellis Hobbs also set an NFL record by taking the second-half kickoff 108 yards for a score.

The Eagles, fairly or not, had developed a reputation for callously discarding players as they reached or surpassed the advanced NFL age of 30. Thirty-somethings, the theory went, needed to go somewhere other than Philadelphia to continue their football careers. Defensive end Hugh Douglas, at 31 and after making three straight Pro Bowls, left via free agency for Jacksonville in 2003 when he decided what the Eagles were offering wasn't nearly enough for a man of his ability.