What are Bezos' political leanings?

David Graham, Atlantic - First and foremost, Bezos is a major backer of gay marriage. He and his wife MacKenzie pledged $2.5 million to support a referendum on gay marriage last year in Washington state, where he lives. The measure passed. The Post has been supportive of gay marriage, but has taken a gradualist approach -- praising, for example, the Supreme Court's move to strike down California's Proposition 8 without making equal marriage the law of the land nationally.

Amazon has also been a major cheerleader for an internet sales tax, which the Post's editorial board also backed.

Bezos has also given to several candidates for office, predominantly Democrats. Democratic Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell of Washington have been the biggest recipients of his donations. He's also given to Senator Pat Leahy, a Vermont Democrat; Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat; Republican Spencer Abraham of Michigan; and Republican Slade Gorton, a former senator from Washington. He also given regularly to a PAC run by Amazon, which has roughly split its contributions between the two parties over the last 10 years.

But all of that only covers a narrow range of the paper's interests. For example, the Post editorial board has tended to be fairly hawkish on foreign affairs, an area in which Bezos's views are unclear.

UPDATE: Here's another good point. Amazon has been involved in various antitrust lawsuits over the years, in particular on the matter of pricing for ebooks. Buying the Post could give Bezos a megaphone in D.C. should his company become entangled with the Justice Department.