It occurs to me that this extended US presidential primary season is not dissimilar from an American Idol season. Several contenders with varying degrees of ability and good looks are competing on a national stage for glory and approval. They all get somewhat famous and the winner is not always acknowledged as the bes choice. Simon might be Bill O'Reilly. You can see at least a bit of a parallel.
The question, then, is where does Barack Obama fit. He's clearly the new kid on the block with the least experience. He's raising almost as much money as Hilary - the judge's clear favourite so far. Sanjaya got lot's of votes and lasted longer than anyone expected. Mr Obama is being criticized as being (in the words of one commentator) "all hat and no cattle." Much style and little substance. At a health care forum recently Mr Obama admitted he did not yet have a fully formed policy stance on health care. You might not go to a forum if you had nothing to say other than its good to be healthy and we're working on a policy. Sanjaya too was thought to have little talent but great hair. Mush of his popularity was due to the dislike of the process and the frontrunnign contenders (tough to tell if this is Idol and singers or primaries and Hillary isn't it?).
Ms Clarkson is described as growing into the role through the process. It will be interesting to see if Obama is Sanjaya and flames out eventually due to a lack of depth or grows into the role and wins like Ms Clarkson. Maybe he'll be the VP candidate (not unlike the tours that follow the coronation in Idol). Much phone voting (polling) remains and we'll see where it all comes out. I expect Simon might find Hillary too polished without enough real feeling.
I'm also not sure which of the processes actually works better. They might actually not be that different in the end.
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