The politics of sex

Jeff Walker
Published: March 11, 2008

Red states and blue states divide our country along political party lines, but bipartisanship may triumph in one particular area: the bedroom.

According to a recent poll, voters in both blue and red states "are surprisingly united when it comes to sexual matters, and there is less separation in the bedroom than originally thought."
However, the same poll found that Democrats and Republicans fall behind Independents in intimate relations.

The survey to which I am referring was in Playboy magazine. First of all: who knew Playboy had polls- I thought people read Playboy for the articles. (Yeah, the articles, that's it.)

I thought austere, hard news journals like "U.S. News and World Report" and the folks at "Time" were the ones to go to for the results of political polls. The news media refers to Gallup polls and Zogby online polls. Now I know a Hefner Poll is worth noticing, too.

I summarize the poll findings, especially for those of you who missed the actual magazine. I imagine a good number of you missed it because you didn't know Playboy had non-partisan, scientific political polls either. (You were too busy reading those articles.)

"The Politics of Sex" appeared in the February issue of the famous gentlemen's magazine. The respondents included 900 adults, ages 18-64, who answered questions on a variety of matters relating to preferences, frequency and sexiest politicians.

Independents rated higher in the bedroom on the poll, earning a 45 percent approval rating. Democrats followed Independents with 36 percent. Republicans were preferred by 18 percent of those polled.

But, the Republicans have sex more often by 12 percentage points, according to the poll. At least once a week, 55 percent of the GOP has sex compared to 43 percent of Democrats.
You may insert your own elephant or donkey joke here.

Electing the president of the United States takes a back seat to being intimate, says the Playboy poll, since more people under 40 have sex at least once a week than vote for president once every four years.

This gives a whole new meaning to "low voter turnout" in my estimation.

Who is sexier among political figures- Well, all you Mamie Eisenhower and James K. Polk fans out there will be disappointed.

One in five respondents said presidential hopeful Barack Obama's wife Michelle was the sexiest woman in politics.

Following Mrs. Obama's 19.7 percent, Secretary of State Condolezza Rice rated the next highest at 17.5 percent. Laura Bush came in a close third place with 16.3 percent.

Would you believe that only 14 percent rated Hillary Clinton as sexy, but nearly 20 percent thought she was the "most likely to talk dirty in bed."

How do the former commander-in-chiefs rate-

The sexiest president of the last 40 years is between the "Great Prevaricator" and the "Great Communicator": 58 percent thought Bill Clinton was the sexiest past president. Ronald Reagan came in second place with 22 percent.

Clinton's high rating really means that more than half the respondents would say "hubba, hubba" to "Bubba."

The president with the least sex appeal was none other than "Tricky Dick" himself, Richard Nixon. I guess that scowl and those jowls didn't sock it to anyone except Pat.

There was a good deal more data from the Playboy Politics of Sex poll, but I will leave it to the more curious reader to look it up. Better yet, you may want to find the actual magazine itself, which I understand is available at many fine retailers. You can wade through the articles and see the poll results for yourself.
The articles. Yeah, that's right, the articles.

Jeff Walker is an independent columnist who lives in Culpeper. He appears every other Wednesday in the Star-Exponent. E-mail