From time to time, I visit Amazon.com and peruse the top 100 bestselling books on politics and current events — just to take an intellectual pulse of the American electorate.

So what are politically inclined Americans reading these days? Let’s take a look, shall we?

There are few English words as loaded or as disputed as “cult.” Stripped of its connotations, a cult is just a group of people with a charismatic leader who devote themselves to a cause or an idea. But use the word in conversation, and it evokes images of mass suicides, bad haircuts and scenes like the one Friday out of Russia, where seven women emerged from a cave that still holds dozens of people awaiting the imminent end of the world (which, according to their calendar, goes down on Slope Day).

I thought about cults on Thursday, at Alice Cook House’s annual interfaith dinner, as I struck up a conversation with a friendly guy I’ll call “Allen”…

“Nice to meet you. I’m Ben. So, what team are you on?”

“Gaudiya Vaishnava.”

Poor Kirk Watson. The Texas state senator and former Austin mayor appeared last week on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews to explain why he was supporting Barack Obama for president. And, well, let’s just say he was about as prepared for the moment as I was for my Psych 209 prelim.

CM: You’re a big Barack supporter, right, Senator?

If you put a gun to my head, I’d tell you the conventional wisdom is on target.When you go to bed a week from tonight, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) will likely be the de facto Democratic nominee and the odds-on favorite to become the 44th president of the United States. But likely is not certain. And in an election season of countless surprises — Mike Huckabee’s rise, Hillary Clinton’s fall, John McCain’s comeback —anything is possible. That’s right, folks: Hillary Clinton is down, but not out.

WASHINGTON — I wrote in my last column that Mitt Romney had steadily lost my respect over the past year. On Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he addressed me and thousands of other attendees, he earned some of it back.

I must have been the only schmuck in the room without a Romney sign or a big red foam baseball “Mitt.” But I looked forward to hearing my former governor speak publicly following his disappointing Super Tuesday. After a glowing introduction by talk-radio diva Laura Ingraham, Romney took the stage to a standing ovation. He launched into what seemed like any other stump speech, tackling every issue from the economy and energy to terrorism and gay marriage.

Fifteen minutes in, however, the talk took a noticeable turn.

MIAMI, Fla. — I was entering 12th grade — and a five-year Republican phase — when Mitt Romney announced he was running for governor of my state. I vaguely remembered him from eight years earlier, in 1994, when the young venture capitalist gave Ted Kennedy a run for his money and his sacrosanct senate seat. Romney was articulate, charming, and — in the judgment of People Magazine — one of the world’s “50 Most Beautiful People.” Fresh from his recent success turning around the troubled 2002 Winter Olympics, Romney offered himself to the Bay State as the businessman who could solve its looming budget crisis. Aided by an unelectable opponent and a nationwide Republican landslide, Romney swept into office with a mandate and a bold agenda.

From time to time, between the banter and blather about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, you hear a rare voice of reason —somebody who cuts through the bullshit, right to the heart of the matter. For me, two years ago was one of those times. It was two weeks before Israel’s pullout from the Gaza Strip, and I was at a seminar in Jerusalem. The speaker was Mossi Raz, a left-wing Israeli politician and leader of the peace group Shalom Achshav (Peace Now).

Don’t book your spring break in Baghdad just yet, but Iraq has finally taken a turn for the better. You wouldn’t know it from reading the headlines, of course, because the war hasn’t been in the headlines lately. It’s been eclipsed by Iran, by Pakistan and by Iowa and New Hampshire. That doesn’t mean there’s less news out of Iraq — just less bad news.

“The evidence is now overwhelming that the ‘surge’ of U.S. military forces in Iraq this year has been, in purely military terms, a remarkable success,” the Washington Post editorialized Sunday. “By every metric used to measure the war — total attacks, U.S. casualties, Iraqi casualties, suicide bombings, roadside bombs — there has been an enormous improvement since January. U.S. commanders report that al-Qaeda has been cleared from large areas it once controlled and that its remaining forces in Iraq are reeling. Markets in Baghdad are reopening, and the curfew is being eased; the huge refugee flow out of the country has begun to reverse itself.”

Last week, I published a controversial column decrying the crucifixion of Nobel Laureate James Watson over his remarks about average group differences in intelligence (specifically his contention that the black-white I.Q. gap was mostly genetic). The buzz was immediate and lasting — as of Sunday, “In Defense of Dr. Watson” had generated over 40 posts on the website and was still listed as the most “popular“ opinion piece. To my pleasant surprise, the e-mails and Facebook messages I received were overwhelmingly supportive (despite one characteristically incoherent piece of hate mail from departed Sun columnist Jeff Purcell ’05).

It seems you’re never too old to learn new lessons — at age 79, Nobel Laureate James Watson is learning one that former Harvard president Lawrence Summers knows well: If you have something politically incorrect to say — and wish to keep your job and reputation — you have two options: Shut up or shut up.

The man who co-discovered DNA’s double helix is being lynched over his comments on the uncomfortable topic of race and intelligence. Dr. Watson told the Times of London two weeks ago that he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours — whereas all the testing says not really.”