Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama is this year's chief Valentine's Day fantasy.

The Royal Gazette recently went looking for romantic stories among its contacts, and found Mr. Obama instead.

The American presidential race has been considered from every angle, race, gender, religion, but has anyone taken into account the, er, attractiveness quotient?

One Bermudian civil servant said she was considering Mr. Obama from all his angles.

"I am on the singles scene right now and I know the type of man that I find highly attractive," said the civil servant, who wished to remain anonymous. "The other night I fell asleep watching the American electoral primaries. I must have dreamed all night about Obama because I woke up with these vivid images of him and me in a family oriented relationship."

The civil servant admitted that Michelle Obama, Barack's wife, was nowhere to be found in her dream. Although it was just a dream (alas!), she thought it revealed a lot about her personal tastes. "When I thought more about it, I realised that what I am attracted to a man who puts God first, values his partner for her strengths and weaknesses, is family committed, is a leader in his community and intellect who is able to clearly articulate the life and events around us in the global neighbourhood. Man, if only he had a twin!"

Another Bermudian woman from Smith's disagreed with the Obama fixation. "Barack is spoken for, plus he is a little too petite for a man," she said. "I like a man who looks like he could stand still in gale force winds, hold his own and hold onto me as well. Barack's a fantastic presidential candidate, excellent public figure, I think he would make a fantastic president of the United States, but he's not the one I'm afraid. Now Denzel Washington is fine and I would love to meet him any day, any time, any place." She wanted to be known as 'Smith's Position Vacant'.

'Smith's Position Vacant' had elaborate plans for the perfect Valentine's Day. Unfortunately, due to the fact that this is a family newspaper we could not share them. Suffice it to say her plans involved a lot of mint chocolate icing.

Since neither Mr. Obama or Mr. Washington (pictured) or their twins are readily available, Bermudian women are increasingly turning to the Internet in search of romantic hopefuls.

Several women we spoke with said they used dating websites and frequently jetted overseas to meet up with prospective mates.

One woman who wanted only to be known by her screen name, 'Island Siren', said she preferred the match.com website.

"It lets you see a person's photo immediately and you can choose by age, gender and location of course," she said.

'Island Siren' said all profiles had to have a photograph unlike other dating websites. In fact, her own picture ran head on into match.com policies.

"I think that match.com is quite aware of keeping things 'clean' as they vet all pics," she said. "I included one from the waist up in a red bikini and it was cropped to just below my neckline when it was uploaded by them." She didn't think it was her body that had offended match.com as she was a former swimwear model.

"I think they are just conscious of not putting anything in that is 'too sexy' which is good, really," she said.

"Match.com is a lot more user-friendly and has generally a younger crowd on there, by far the best catch from a girl's perspective appears to be those fine single guys living in California, unfortunately!"

Geography was no match for some people. One woman who wanted to be known as 'Old Enough to Be a Grandmother in Southampton', said: "When you are middle-aged, lonely and divorced, flying to the USA to meet men is not a big deal."

Ten years ago, 'Old Enough' found herself divorced, middle-aged and lonely.

"The dating pool for age-appropriate men in Bermuda appeared dismal," she said. "Single men my age with any appeal were happily sporting 30-something women on their arms. But hope sprung eternal when I started cruising Internet dating sites."

The bad news for 'Old Enough', however, was that all the good candidates were in the United States.

"I made the decision to take a vacation and meet men," she said.

"What I can confirm is this. Most of these guys really were who they said they were. Several of them became good friends with whom I remain in touch and sometimes visit when I travel to the United States." She said a few also turned into love affairs. Sadly, one left her heart feeling as though it had been run over by a Mack truck. In the end, she met someone off-line in Bermuda.

"Despite having my heart broken, I firmly believe that in this age of Internet access, meeting other singles in cyberspace is as useful as online shopping," she said.

She likened Internet dating to Victorian times when lovers would spend months wooing each other by writing letters.

However, the traditional cupid's arrow approach to romance still works for many people, however.

Royal Gazette education services co-ordinator Jennifer Hind met her husband Ian, an engineer, at an art show.

"We met at the Spring Members' Show of the Bermuda Society of Arts," said Mrs. Hind. "I was divorced and he was separated from his wife at the time. One of his colleagues at Works and Engineering encouraged him to come along.

"The beer-drinking, rugby-playing mechanical engineer wasn't too enamoured of sipping wine with some poncey highbrows with stiff pinkie fingers, but he reluctantly agreed to go."

Unfortunately, Mr. Hind only gave Jennifer his telephone number and did not take hers in return.

"Then I had the dilemma of what to do with it," she said. "Needless to say, following some trials and tribulations we have been married now for six years. We have also become volunteers of the Bermuda National Gallery and the Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art ¿ and he's even come to like wine. He's my 'best pal' and we make a great team."

Jane Simmons said she first met her husband Kim during the week of Hurricane Emily in 1997.

"I lived with a friend of mine in her condo in Southampton," she said. "A friend of ours came to visit and he was off the road, so his friend drove him to the house. I immediately thought the friend was cute but, but being shy I said very little. In fact, I spent most of my time talking to our mutual friend and my roommate spoke to Kim."

Kim and his friend were in the Regiment at the time, and had only visited during a break.

"A few days later was Hurricane Emily and by this time I had been irritating my friends about this guy," she said. "I liked him and wanted to get to know him. On the Saturday after the hurricane hit, I was at Masters with another girlfriend and her parents for supplies and we saw a bunch of soldiers in there. My friend said that if Kim was there I better speak to him or she didn't want to hear his name again. Well, lo and behold, who comes around the corner but Kim."

Unfortunately, they were both hit by an attack of butterflies and neither said anything but 'hi'.

They did eventually get together through the work of their friends. They have now been together for 20 years and married for 16.

"We both take marriage very seriously and I believe he wanted to make sure that it was forever," she said. "We have had a wonderful marriage but not without its ups and downs. Without a doubt I would have to say that the secret to our successful marriage is our relationship with God. He is at the forefront of our lives and I truly believe that we would not have made it this far without Him."