Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and John McCain (R-AZ) were the big winners in the “Potomac Primary,” sweeping MD, VA and Washington, D.C. and winning by enormous margins over their opponents.

Obama won MD with 60 percent of the vote to 36 percent for Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), and McCain bested Fmr. Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR) 55 percent to 30 percent.

Obama got 64 percent of the VA vote to Hillary’s 35 percent; McCain won by a narrower – but still respectable - nine percent margin over Huckabee (50 percent to 41 percent).

And in Washington, D.C., Obama and McCain each won by a crushing 51 points (75 percent to 24 percent for Obama, and 68 percent to 17 percent for McCain).

Obama also made inroads into Hillary’s core support, which gives him really Big Mo going into the WI primary and HI caucus February 19^th, and OH, RI, TX and VT, which hold their vote on March 4. Just as Rudy Giuliani (R-NY) put all his chips on FL and was flattened by McCain’s momentum after wins in the early primary states, Hillary is now betting on TX to neutralize Obama’s wins in eight contests in a row in small states. But those small states are in every region across the U.S., and with each victory, Obama’s support is broadening and deepening.  

Preliminary exit polls show that in VA and MD, Obama got 90 percent of the black vote, but split the white vote with Hillary, and that he won nearly 6 out of 10 of the women’s vote in both states.  In VA Obama got 80 percent of under-30, as well as 53 percent of the 65+ vote; and for the first time, voters making less than $50,000 a year chose him over Hillary 59 percent to 40 percent.

Unless Huckabee packs it in after tonight – and there’s no reason he shouldn’t keep going until March 4^th, as he’s expected to do well in TX - McCain still has to fight for the conservative vote in the WI primary on February 19^th and in OH, RI, TX and VT but this trio of wins may create a bandwagon effect.

Early exit polling in VA show that Huckabee got two-thirds of white evangelicals and those who self-identify as “very conservative.” While McCain edged Huckabee out amongst voters who call themselves “somewhat” conservative, he won moderates by a 2:1 margin. Unlike other contests where McCain got strong support from independents, this time he split these votes with Huckabee 38 percent to 35 percent, with 20 percent voting for Ron Paul (R-TX).

In its exit polling Fox News found that 62 percent of Republican voters in VA said they “frequently” listen to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and other conservative talk show hosts – all of whom have been attacking McCain for not being conservative enough – and these voters supported Huckabee over McCain by a 10-oint margin (48 percent to 38 percent). Limbaugh, for instance, has also been attacking Huckabee as a phony conservative (Paul is so far out of the Republican mainstream Limbaugh doesn’t waste air time on him), so these voters are voting against McCain rather than for Huckabee or Paul.

Exit polls in MD found Republicans split down the middle over whether McCain is a “true conservative,” but those who cited terrorism as the most important issue facing the U.S.  country picked McCain by 34 points over Huckabee (64 percent to 27 percent), and those who voted their pocketbooks gave McCain a 20 percent margin over his rival.

According to CNN, Obama now has a slim lead over Hillary in the delegate count (1,215 to 1,190) and McCain has roughly four times as many delegates as Huckabee (812 to 217). 

Pucker Up

Researchers say that although kissing is common in 90 percent of human cultures, no one ever studied why people kiss and the role that kissing – or osculation, to science-types – plays in mate selection. Until now. Kissing helps women, in particular, assess a potential sex partner, promotes bonding and creates sexual arousal, according to a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Evolutionary Psychology by Susan M. Hughes, an assistant professor of psychology at Albright College in PA. None of the study findings should come as a surprise to any one who has kissed or been kissed, so The Stiletto can only hope that the grant money used to fund this research came from a private foundation and not the federal government (which is to say, our taxes).  

Sex And The City

Any “Seinfeld” fan knows that courtship in NYC has its own peculiar rituals. Some of them involve real estate. “Your place or mine” isn’t an invitation for nookie, but an agonizing choice couples eventually make about whether a relationship is stable enough for them to move in together – and which of them will give up his or her apartment. Reports The New York Times:

Some couples move in together rather quickly just because a lease has run out. Some can’t decide who moves where because neither wants to give up a good deal on an apartment. Others make the leap and marry because they fear that a co-op board will reject them if they are just living together. And there are people who rule out potential partners simply because of where they live.

Fabulous apartments at equally fabulous prices are so hard to come by in New York that the possession of one, or lack thereof, can easily tip the balance in a relationship. While major life changes like marriage and children influence real estate decisions in all parts of the country, the scarcity of New York real estate bargains actually seems to cause life changes, or at least push them along.

“Real estate can define relationships in New York,” said Pam Fica, an agent with DJK Residential. Moving in together, for example, becomes an issue here sooner than it might elsewhere. “When you hit the one-year mark and you’ve said the ‘I love yous,’ then what?” she said. “In other places, you can afford to keep your own place, but here, everything is so expensive, you ideally want to be able to share the rent. So if you’re not talking about it, you start to wonder: What’s wrong with this relationship?”

Red Is For Blood, Not For Love

Saudi Arabia’s Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice wants florists and gift shops to remove anything red - flowers, wrapping paper, gift boxes, teddy bears and other gift items – from their shelves until after Valentine's Day, having deemed celebrating the holiday a sin. “As Muslims we shouldn't celebrate a non-Muslim celebration, especially this one that encourages immoral relations between unmarried men and women,” Islamic studies scholar Sheikh Khaled Al-Dossari told the Saudi Gazette. On the day before Valentie’s Day the kingdon’s virtue and vice squad will raid stores and confiscate forbidden symbols of love. What is it with Muslims and teddy bears? [Hat Tip: The Heel, an Ivy-educated attorney with a prestigious New York firm.]

Great Movie Kisses

Not ready to give your Valentine an engagement ring (or to share your rent-controlled apartment), but still want to give her or him something romantic? Consider "Great Kisses...and Famous Lines Right Out of the Movies," by Timothy Knight, which is a compilation of photos and descriptions of the 50 hottest kisses in cinematic history. Reports The Wall Street Journal:

Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh in “Gone With the Wind,” Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster on the beach in “From Here To Eternity,” John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara in “The Quiet Man,” Sylvester Stallone and Talia Shire - after Adrian takes off her glasses, of course - in “Rocky.” And there's a rightness, however repetitive, to the three picks for Bergman (“Casablanca,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “Notorious”); the three for Bogart (“Casablanca,” “The Big Sleep,” “To Have and Have Not”) the three for Cary Grant (“Notorious,” “Only Angels Have Wings,” “To Catch a Thief”) and the two for Lauren Bacall (“The Big Sleep,” “To Have and Have Not”). But the four for Katharine Hepburn (“Alice Adams,” “The Philadelphia Story,” “Woman of the Year,” “Summertime”) constitute both sweet justice and restraint of trade.

Speaking of cinematic history, this is the very first kiss ever recorded on film, by Thomas Edison in 1896. The smoochers are May Irwin and John Rice, and the film is called – what else? - “The Kiss.” [Hat Tip: Jeff Sher.]

The Stiletto’s Advice On Avoiding Toxic Relationships

† If you have a choice between love and money, always choose love.

† If you have a choice between love and honor, always choose honor.