Obama or Romney: Who's Your Sugar Daddy?

So what do you think? Which U.S. presidential candidate has more promise as a sugar daddy? Barack Obama or Mitt Romney? If you picked Obama, congratulations! Your vote is in line with the overwhelming 3-to-1 majority in a poll taken by SeekingArrangement.com, which bills itself as the world’s largest sugar daddy dating website, with 1.5 million members.

Ladies, ignore the wedding ring. This man is sugar daddy material!

The site posed the Obama vs. Romney question to more than 30,000 of its female Sugar Baby members this past week, and found that Obama beat Romney in all key swing states and even some Republican strongholds, capturing the hearts of Democrat, independent and even Republican female voters.

A good-looking guy. But a sugar daddy? Not so much.

A visit to the SeekingArrangement site shows that it views a modern sugar daddy as a man who is always respectful and generous. But beware, he can also be a super-demanding paramour: "You only live once, and you want to date the best. Some call you a mentor, sponsor or benefactor. But no matter what your desires may be, you are brutally honest about who you are, what you expect and what you offer."

Oh, a mentor, so that's what they're calling it these days. Somebody ought to get back to Elliot Spitzer on this.

The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post and Vanity Fair magazine, by the way, have all reported stories about SeekingArrangement.com, which has a sister website called SeekingMillionaire.com.

Fact is, Romney is certainly a mega-millionaire. So you'd figure that he'd make a better sugar daddy than Obama, a simple Harvard-educated lawyer and bestselling author who managed for years on a humble state senator's salary, right?

Not so, say the SeekingArrangement poll results.

• 34.1% said they would prefer Obama as their sugar daddy
•  11.9% said they would prefer Romney as their sugar daddy  
• 11.1% said they would be happy to have either Obama or Romney as their sugar daddy 

"Barack Obama was by far the preferred sugar daddy. Obama beat Romney by a knockout of 3 to 1,” says Brandon Wade, founder and CEO of SeekingArrangement, in a statement. “While many unfairly stereotype Sugar Babies as gold-diggers who would gladly accept any wealthy man as their sugar daddy, our survey shows the contrary. Sugar Babies are extremely picky about the men they date.”

Indeed, nearly half, or 43%, said they wouldn’t choose either Obama or Romney for a sugar daddy. But for those who do want a presidential-caliber rich guy in their lives, Obama was the clear winner by double-digit percentages over Romney. The ladies loved them some Obama, from New York to Ohio to Texas to California and even to Romney's home state of Massachusetts, where the vote went 32.8% toward Obama versus only 20.2% for Romney.

“According to our survey, most women say they chose Obama because he is more trustworthy, charismatic and sexy," says Wade, an MBA from MIT. "Obama is funny and is known to be a good dancer. Unfortunately, Romney is still viewed by many as the ‘vanilla’ candidate."

Here's a tip for the Romney campaign: get your candidate to take some dancing lessons.

Lola Montez: Dead or Alive

Beautiful Lola

I've been a fan of Lola Montez for years. A whip-cracking vixen of the nineteenth century, she was a luxuriant weed growing unchecked in the hypercultivated garden of the Victorian era. The moralizing bourgeoisie viewed her as a terrible example of womanhood grown wild and warned their daughters against becoming transgressive rebels lest they suffer the fate of Lola Montez.

Scary Lola

“She has the evil eye and will bring bad luck to whoever links his destiny with hers,” the French novelist Alexandre Dumas Sr. wrote of La Montez.

As any avid student of history might appreciate, I feel that I have a personal relationship with Lola Montez, not just because I've read many biographies about her, but also because my path keeps crossing hers in mysterious ways.

I live in Brooklyn and am within walking distance of Green-Wood Cemetery, where she is buried under her real name:

And just last month, I visited a friend in Grass Valley, California, where Lola lived during the Gold Rush from 1853 to 1855. Her house is still standing. In fact, it has been preserved and features a couple of historic plaques that celebrate her life. The first is a state-registered landmark that describes Lola Montez as "a mistress of international intrigue and a feminist before her time":

The second plaque is a bit odd. It says that Alice Lorraine Andrews, who acquired the Lola Montez house in 1933, gave it to the Pioneer Association of Nevada County, California, "to honor her grandparents and other pioneers and to create a center for the furtherance of Christian, patriotic and cultural ideals."

The house itself is a cozy, tidy-looking affair, maintained in good order as of the spring of 2012. It sits on a lot just a few blocks away from "downtown" Grass Valley, which is now a sleepy town with some good cafes, wine-tasting bars and restaurants.

The house wasn't open the day I showed up, but I peeked inside, and the interior looked stuffy and quiet. The image I took appeared fuzzy and ghostly. Is Lola's spirit still inside?

After an early divorce, affairs with virtuoso pianist Franz Liszt and King Ludwig I, a fatal duel, a revolution in Bavaria, several ugly marriages, countless whippings and a restless dancing career on four continents, Lola Montez died of syphilis in New York at the age of forty-three, broke and friendless.

Often when I think of her, I want to save her, yet I know I can't. But at least I can pay her a visit!