Forty percent of women would choose Barack Obama as their ideal dinner companion. The president-elect beats out Brad Pitt, the dream dinner date of only 20% of women. But if Michelle Obama plans to tag along in that dress she wore election night, almost two thirds of women say she can just stay home.

Those controversial findings are part of the end-of-year round-up of survey results amassed by www.BettyConfidential.com, a start-up Web portal that regularly takes the temperature of its female readership with online surveys. More predictably, 91% of respondents told the site that they will be cutting back on their holiday shopping this year—although they will be letting themselves indulge in the comforts of beauty products (18%), mani/pedicures (18%), and chocolate (16%).

Launched in March 2008, BettyConfidential.com targets women 18 to 49 with a mix of gossip, fashion, relationship advice and community-building features. For example, registered users can create a profile and sign up for the Betty Talk social network, where they can enter chat rooms and post on ten topic areas from parenting and relationships to celebrities and current events. When I checked yesterday, that last meant discussing the shoes that President Bush had to duck while he was in Iraq talking about how well that’s gone.

The site also does weekly polls called The Pulse, and in fact the one running currently asks readers to choose what kind of shoe they’d throw: a stiletto, a boot, a flip flop or a clog? No guidance on who they’d be flinging footwear at, which seems a mistake; that might make a big difference.

Anyway, at the end of their site’s first calendar year, the folks at BettyConfidential.com have pulled together some of the most telling weekly poll results.

These include the findings of a specific survey on the economy and spending habits, conducted last October by BettyConfidential.com. At that time, women participants were asked to rate their anxiety level about the economy. It was relatively high: More than 75% said that on a 1-10 scale, with 1 being “not at all” and 10 “extreme,” the economy was a 6 or higher on the headache scale. In fact, 20% put their worry level at 8, and another 21% said the current business climate was for them a 9 on the agita scale.

Asked specifically how the downturn is affecting their lives, 29% of those surveyed said they are worried about losing their jobs. Twenty-seven percent replied that the recession has knocked their career plans for a loop. Another 14% said conditions had put the kibosh on their plans to buy a home; 12% said they were cutting back on spending for child care. And 3% said the troubled economy had put a crimp in their wedding or honeymoon plans.

Talk all you want about consumer confidence measurements, but when women are trimming back their wedding expectations and mothers are dialing down the daycare—that’s one serious financial picture.

As mentioned, more than 9 in 10 respondents said they expected to spend less for gifts this year. And asked if they planned to get out and spend on Black Friday, almost 88% said no. But they did allow those small comfort purchases for themselves, as I said. In addition to the cosmetics, manicures and chocolate, 10% said they pamper themselves with new shoes, and 3% went for lingerie from Victoria’s Secret or Gap Body.

From the primaries to the general election, weekly polls took the pulse of the site’s membership on political questions. It may have been the first election in 24 years to have a woman on a major-party ticket, but that didn’t translate in automatic support from the Bettys. By 69% to 31%, the survey found, respondents said in October Joe Biden would make a better vice president than Sarah Palin.

And asked if Palin should throw her hat in the ring for the Presidency in 2012, 71% said no.

But while the survey group most often picked to have dinner with Mr. Obama—at 40%, he beat out not only Mr. Pitt but Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps (30%) and former president Bill Clinton (10%)—they weren’t crazy about his name. Only 21% said they would name their child “Barack”. And in fact 100% said they wouldn’t want their child to grow up and become president.

While they had problems with Michelle Obama’s wardrobe choice for her big night, 80% of those surveyed said they like her and 74% admire her.

And the Bettys, being Bettys, also voiced another opinion regarding Brad Pitt. Sixty-three percent of the response group said they prefer his former celebrity girlfriend Jennifer Aniston to his current wife Angelina Jolie.