CARRIE AND BO VERSUS KERRY AND DUBYA

American I-Dull gets more 378 million more votes than the US presidential election. I'm glad we have our priorities straight. Who wants to fool with some ol' messy war thousands of miles away when they can hear a purdy song? Uh, unless their gas prices go up.

From the Detroit Free Press via http://huffingtonpost.com

There's also the theory that "Idol" taps into our love of democracy , since viewers choose who stays and who goes.

"It really makes it unpredictable," says Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University.

On Wednesday's episode, it was announced that "Idol" got more than 500 million votes for the season.

Although the 2004 presidential election garnered 122 million votes, Thompson isn't worried. Voters got one ballot in Bush versus Kerry, he points out, while they could vote as many times as they wanted for Bo versus Carrie.