in my opinion, the question about lean is fundamentally flawed in as much as it's a gross oversimplification.
there are individual rights issues as wide ranging as gun control, abortion, euthanasia, civil/women's/and homosexuality rights, and the death penalty (not to even tackle the terrorism bills).
there are social program issues as wide ranging as health care, education, the social security pension, and welfare and unemployment coverage.
and then you have the economic issues such as corporate governance, foreign aid, federal deficit management, trade, tarrifs, industrial protectionism, consumer activism.
any individual can be far left on one thing, far right on another, and middle of the road on still another - and that might just be three things within one of those lists!
add to this something as gross as aggregating the expressed opinions of all those on the board... whew!
as someone who said this board has a far right leaning, it probably has more to do with how outspoken those extremists are (and yes, i'm not the extremist, they are!
), than that they represent all of IW's 14,000 members.
but then again, george bush is representing america to the world - how do you think they think about the US because of him?