Politics and fundamentalism

This collection of polls puts the various presidential contenders head-to-head. The thing that strikes me most strongly about this is that according to pretty much every poll, Giuliani would defeat any of the three top Democratic candidates (Clinton, Obama, or Edwards), whereas Romney would lose to any of the three. While such results so far in advance of the election have little predictive value, they do suggest that running as a social moderate carries a strong advantage.

Meanwhile, here's a reminder that conservatism (in most senses) doesn't logically require an anti-science, anti-reason religious-fundamentalist stance.

Finally, our local independent weekly paper The Portland Mercury offers an entertaining glimpse of the fundamentalist mind-set.