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American Idol Winner Gets More Votes Than Any American President
You knew it had to happen: an American Idol winner got more votes than any American President:
The most popular talent contest in America, if not the world, has crowned its latest victor after polling a record 63.4 million votes.The host of American Idol, Ryan Seacrest, announced in considerable excitement that the figure was “more than any president in the history of our country has received”.
The show’s phenomenal success has prompted many comparisons with the country’s declining political participation.
The final of its fifth series drew its largest television audience to date, almost on a par with the Oscars, and underscored the phenomenal success of the British import, now a multi-billion dollar franchise and popular culture behemoth.
The latest idol is a prematurely grey, chubby-faced 29-year-old singer from Alabama whose husky-voiced soul numbers and quirky dance moves won him an army of fans.
But Taylor Hicks won for his singing.
If he was put into competition with another factor, he’d get less votes than an American politician.
He still can’t give the American public the kind of song and dance like some American politicians have.
8 Responses to “American Idol Winner Gets More Votes Than Any American President”
Disgusting!
Not exactly a fair comparison – American Idol voters are allowed to vote as many times as they want. It’s 63.4 million VOTES, not 63.4 million VOTERS. And I am betting much of those votes are from the under 18 crowd, who obviously do not vote in Presidential elections.
Not to mention the fact that the 64 million number was for the total number of votes cast, not the number that Taylor Hicks received. So it’s apple vs… two apples.
Still, that’s a lot of votes.
While I think it is disgraceful that Americans have such a low voting rate for political elections, I see nothing wrong with voting for Idol. Its not an either or choice. More people may tune in because unlike politics, Idol is good, clean fun-where the amount of money you have doesn’t equal influence.
Maybe people are tuning out politicians because what they say before they are elected never correlates to what they actually do after they’re elected. Many feel disenfranchised, even when they do go out and vote due to voting irregularities during close elections which hurt the legitemacy of the results-i.e Bush v Gore in 2000.
Others feel that our politicians no longer represent their districts, but have sold out to powerful interest groups. I’m still going to vote, anyway, but understand why many have gotten apathetic.
Hmm… you can vote as often as you’d like, but if you text message your votes, you usually have to pay your cell provider at a per-message rate. So indirectly, money CAN buy influence in American Idol.;)
I agree with Kat, sure it isn’t a fair comparison to say that when most people who vote are under the age of of 18. But, I still think it is kind of sad that more people care about the next American Idol then the next politican or President.
Part of what makes political turnout (supposedly)lower than American Idol could be the manner in which you do it. While you have to register, stand in line, then finally get to vote for presidential elections, with American Idol, you can vote from the convenience of your own home! (or wherever you happen to be)
Yes SOUL PATROL
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