(I have no idea in which forum to post this, as it could go nearly everywhere, so here it is . . .)
I heard on the “news” (1010 WINS, which is “news-like”) that five times as many people voted for American Idol as voted in the Presidential election last year. The reaction around the office this morning was:
Anyone else hear this? Are these numbers true?
American Idol does allow you to vote several times for the candidate of your choice, a practice which, in the presidential election, is only possible in a few select counties.
Remember that people could – and undoubtedly did – vote more than once.
Not to mention that American Idol doesn’t screen out underage voters, felons, non-citizens, and the deceased.
Maybe if we had the candidates sing, and could vote by phone?
I know someone who voted 40 times in the American Idol finals. She would have happily voted 40 times for president, but they didn’t let her. (Lost both times, more’s the pity.)
–Cliffy
Gosh, am I behind the cultural curve. I opened this thinking somebody was so in love with canned meat products that he wanted to elect the inventor POTUS. William Underwood died in 1864, though, and was a naturalized citizen in any case. So, never mind.
I thought this would be about the 1924 Democratic presidential convention, where the call of “Al-a-ba-ma casts 23 votes for Oscar Underwood” was stated no fewer than 103 times.
I was thinking typewriters.
Blair Underwood is running for President?
Do you really want American Idol watchers to start voting in droves?
Well, 122 million people voted in the Presidential election. There are roughly 217 million people of voting age in the US, of which some are not citizens or are otherwise ineligible to vote.
Soooo…at least 56% all eligible voters showed up at the polls last November. So, five times as many voting would have been … even more troubling than the actual turnout.
Im-possible!
(No one got the “Of Thee I Sing” reference? Unless Governor Quinn wooshed me?)
No, I missed the reference too.
I think the Dems should have used an Idol format when they were all doing those debates. If after each debate, one of them was thrown out it would have been far more interesting.
An addentium to this post:
I did get that it’s a reference to Oscar Underwood- just not what your source was.
After we finally got a devisive president removed, my alma mater just confirmed Underwood as our new, albeit interim, President. I saw this and thought "Oh sh!t, Eve’s about to rip my university a new one.
… and no, there’s no embarrassment quite like misspelling while you’re talking about your educational institution… divisive.
I don’t think any of the candidates in the last election could have made it past the auditions. I would like to here Simon’s comments on some of them, though.
Tris
Actually I opened the thread thinking “Wait, isn’t that supposed to be Wintergreen ?”