It was a good run, Red Sox … but now it’s up to the Phillies to take the devil out of those Rays, I guess.  A rested Philadelphia team meets the Rays in Florida for game 1 on Wednesday night.  Here’s hoping for either a good, exciting, long Series or (my personal favorite) a four game Phillies sweep!  (Sorry Mo and Beeg!)

Lots and lots of news and musings on the political front this morning – and most of it not good from a McCain perspective.  First, though, thanks, Alison, for your thoughtful comments about Colin Powell’s Obama endorsement.  It’s not just the fact of the endorsement, but its substance that is so telling!  Powell’s assessment of the tenor of the Straight Talker’s campaign is at once right-on and devastating.

Not surprisingly, the only response from the McCain camp is to assert, with statesman-like maturity, that “John McCain has been endorsed by more than 300 retired generals and admirals. That’s over 10 times more than what Senator Obama has received.”(Can you say, “Nah, na, na, Nah, Nah!?”)

On the health and medical records front, this New York Times article by Lawrence K. Altman, MD (yesterday’s Times) continues to flesh out the significant concerns that voters ought to have about Senator McCain’s health status – especially with Sarah Palin waiting in the wings.

And just how did Sarah get herself into the wings?  Apparently, she and others had been working at it for some time – as described in The Insiders, a well-researched and revealing New Yorker article by Jane Mayer.

With just days to go before the Convention, the choices were slim. Karl Rove favored McCain’s former rival Mitt Romney, but enough animus lingered from the primaries that McCain rejected the pairing. “I told Romney not to wait by the phone, because ‘he doesn’t like you,’ ” Keene, who favored the choice, said. “With John McCain, all politics is personal.” Other possible choices-such as former Representative Rob Portman, of Ohio, or Governor Tim Pawlenty, of Minnesota-seemed too conventional. They did not transmit McCain’s core message that he was a “maverick.” Finally, McCain’s top aides, including Steve Schmidt and Rick Davis, converged on Palin. Ed Rogers, the chairman of B.G.R., a well-connected, largely Republican lobbying firm, said, “Her criteria kept popping out. She was a governor-that’s good. The shorter the Washington résumé the better. A female is better still. And then there was her story.” He admitted, “There was concern that she was a novice.” In addition to Schmidt and Davis, Charles R. Black, Jr., the lobbyist and political operative who is McCain’s chief campaign adviser, reportedly favored Palin. Keene said, “I’m told that Charlie Black told McCain, ‘If you pick anyone else, you’re going to lose. But if you pick Palin you may win.’ ” (Black did not return calls for comment.) Meanwhile, McCain’s longtime friend said, “Kristol was out there shaking the pom-poms.”

I had thought that Rove was the Palin cheerleader – but now the image of Kristol shaking the pom-poms is definitely going to linger!

From Kathleen and Gay Hendricks, on The Huffington Post, I was interested to read about McCain’s body language and what it reveals about his repressed fear.  I was onto the repressed anger bit … but hadn’t considered fear.  This is an interesting slant – especially as fear-mongering has been about the only thing the GOP has had going for it in recent memory.

Being cut off from fear or any emotion puts you out of integrity with yourself. As one our mentors, Jack Downing, M.D., put it, “Integrity glitches cause body twitches.” The source of John McCain’s odd display of twitches, jaw-clenches and chilly grins is a fault-line gap of integrity at the center of himself, a place where he has cut himself off from fear and the rest of us. He wants to become a super hero, The Man Without Fear. That’s not a bad idea for a cartoon, but in real life it would be a disaster. In real life, we need real heroes, people who are willing to acknowledge fear and look within it, to the gift it brings.

And finally, pursuing the vein of being “cut off” – The Huffington Post has links to several slide shows of “PDA Moments” between the four candidates and their respective spouses.  I’ve linked to the Palin’s show first … and there you’ll find links to the other slide shows.  Particularly striking was the lack of connection and warmth between John and Cindy … and what’s with all the injuries, Cindy?  I’d feel bad for you … if you were nicer to your half-sister.

I’m also getting the feeling (after looking at the Palins together) that the First Dude has a lot more to do with the workings of the Governor’s office than they are letting on.  They just look to me like one of those good Biblical Christian couples where the guy is the head of the household … blah, blah, blah, blah.

Meanwhile, the Bidens and the Obamas look like real people who actually enjoy each others company.  (In fact, the Obamas actually needed TWO slide shows!)  Imagine!  Genuine affection!  In the White House, no less!