Wright HotReport

JOHN EDWARDS WILL TRY and define victory "down" today by claiming it in "Skonsin" where he lost to John Kerry 40-34. This is being called a narrow victory, though six points is not really that narrow. Two factors make it look that way though: one being the fact that he was 20 plus points down in polling just days before the primary...the second being that the early reporting had Edwards actually ahead...with 11% in. That gave the race the appearance of a back and forth basketball game. It wasn't. For all the grief they caught for 2000...and deservedly so....the media and the Voter News Service nailed this one. They said 5 points from the get-go...stayed with it even with Edwards 2-3% ahead early...and it came in at mathematically between 5 and 6 per cent.

NOW WATCH THE PRESS make it look as close as Bush Gore 2000...to keep the Dems on the front pages and on the Cable News shows. I guarantee you the media will portray this as all of America being so agog with TWO DEMOCRATS that they can't figure out which one they love the most.

OF COURSE, WRIGHTHOT.COM might look good in the end. We predicted that Edwards would be a factor all along and might sping the big upset. That has not looked very good since Iowa...until perhaps today.

RUSH LIMBAUGH AND THE ACLU are teaming up? You know we are in strange times when that happens. Every decade or so, the ACLU will join a conservative in a cause that fits what the ACLU was supposedly founded for. We all know it's really a far leftist organization of lawyers trying to get their agenda through any way they can...but they will throw truth a bone every now and again to try and ward off exposition of what they are really about. Rush is a good one, because they will get a lot of press over this one. But they're still a pro-communist organization trying to inflict as much aetheistic statism on us as they can.

OLD FASHIONED WAY: you gotta love our normal ordinary populist Democrats running for President. Yes, good ole John Effen Kerry made money by marrying it....300 million bucks worth....then trading up for a wife worth 700 million. And John Edwards found enough ignorant juries in Eastern North Carolina to destroy businesses and jobs so he could have 50 mill or so in the bank.....so we have one who married his way to the top...and another who sued his way to the top. Yes sir....two America's alright.

DEAN WATCH: will the good Doctor be graceful enough (no evidence of that trait so far) to be hailed as a hero at the Dem Convention for igniting the party...or will he be contentious enough to be persona non grata this summer?

WHILE ALPHONSE D'AMATO AND JOHN MCCAIN and other courageous folks in both houses of congress have come out boldly against ATM fees (Automatic Teller Machines) that are totally and absolutely voluntary....all 400 plus members have been stone cold silent about a much larger and much "less voluntary" fee known as AMT....Alternative Minimum Tax. The AMT was put into place originally to close loop holes for the 155 richest Americans. Needless to say, as has been documented before on this website, when liberal government does something...it always accomplishes the opposite of what it says it wants to do. Such is the case with AMT. This horrible tax code subtelty is socking several thou extra tax on many many middle and upper middle income families. See BusinessWeek.com article this week. And have a martini.

Just like a lot of voters (and hence, their representatives) in this sound byte culture. Let's get all ticked at a buck fifity ATM fee....while we're silent about dropping three thou each April. And besides...do you think those ATM machines run themselves? Of course that costs something....as does stupidity.

JOHNNIE EDWARDS has led the Democrat's rush to the populace "us versus them" headlong dive this campaign season....with his now famous "Two American's" speech. He is talking about the America we all know versus some third world country that he seems to think exists somewhere in our borders.

WHAT HE MAY GET is the realization that there ARE two America's...but not the two he is thinking about. For example...the America of families and kids versus the America of in your face gay rights....or the America of traditional values versus the America of Super Bowl halftime shows....or the America of Constitutional priorities...versus the America who wants to turn our defense over to the UN. You're right John....TWO AMERICAS. You may not like the biggest one...and they won't like you or John Kerry is they get to know you.

SO NOW JOHN MCCAIN....who was so pissed at himself for taking big donations from Enron that he passed legislation outlawing your and my constitutional rights...is now upset that there are already ways around so called "campaign finance reform." The groups are tax entities called "527's"...and they can give any amount of money to any candidate as long as they are un-incorporated, non-profit and are aligned in only one issue. They are the quintessential special interest. So of course, they were invented by the very law to stop special interest money from ruling politics. Take a hint...when government does something liberal...it actually accomplishes the opposite of it's stated goal....like the war on poverty, affirmative action, and on and on.

THE MEDIA is just in an absolute orgy over....shock of all shocks...the New York Yankees snapping up the highest paid and best available player.Frankly, I think it's almost a joke that the economics of baseball are so obviously slanted towards just a couple franchises...and especially the Yankees. I will buy the Yankees-Red Sox as sport's greatest rivalry (according to ESPN)...but I don't buy it as required reading 365/24/7....

CAN'T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS: the worst trait of the sports media is their always present (even if they don't know it) liberal bias that comes out in all stories on players vs management, race, gender, etc. Today we heard ESPN's Tony Kornheiser said "the Yankees want to win more" as to why they sign all of the sports' free agents. C'mon Tony....could it be that being in New York gives them a ton more cash to spend. BTW....sportscasters are the first to blame owners for over paying players...while not blaming themselves for the kind of pressure indicated above...let alone the players or their agents for the pressure. Maybe it's not a liberal thing...maybe it's a stupid thing....or perhaps, they are the "same thing."

YOU GOTTA LOVE our fabulous media establishment in this country....they are so "cutting edge." This week, ABCNews.com came out with the stunning discovery that their (meaning ABC specifically and the mainstream media in general) coverage "leans way left." No. Really?

Further, they admitted that due to shared assumptions (a great term, actually) prevalent throughout most of their ilk caused liberal positions to be considered the "default positions" on most issues while conservative positions were considered right wing and out of the main stream. Another shocker.

And just to verify, the majority of the Washington press corps were termed "policital enemies" of President Bush even though they are hired to cover the White House objectively. (Shhhh...don't let that get around).

Never mind that all of this has been known by anyone who has been paying attention for the past, oh, 25 years minimum. Then again...that's progress. In the mid 90's, Time Magazine shockingly discovered in a cover story that "men and women are different." Maybe the media is actually closing the gap between them...and the rest of creation. They're catching up.