Subject: Third Party Leads To American Idol Election Controversy Date: Fri, 08 Nov 2002 02:29:28 GMT From: "Chuck, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01" Newsgroups: alt.startrek.vs.starwars Third Party Leads To American Idol Election Controversy In the wake of Tuesday's elections the American Idol is again rocked with controversy that has followed the hotly contested match since the summer. A fierce entertainment campaign by both parties led to what many felt were negative attitudes by the viewers polled as the election neared. "It's not about how well they can perform any more," American Idol political analyst Candi Smythe said, "it's about how bad the other person performs. That is, like, so not cool." It seems that many shared Smythe's assessment, as evidenced by low voter turnout. The contest had grown especially heated during the days up to the election. Shaliqua Twain, the Democratic American Idol candidate, made several changes to her song "Tax the Rich" in the closing days of the campaign. Her Republican opponent, Blythe Whitebread, stuck with his classic "Did I Mention I'm Friends With George Bush?" that's become identified with him throughout the campaign. Both feel they put in the best performance, although the vote results remain ambiguous. In the end the election was so close that the scale was tipped by third party performers. The single largest impact was caused by the Red Green Party, whom many people felt took votes away from Twain. While the performer did alienate many mainstream viewers, his staple piece "If Ya Don't Find Me Handsome (At Least Find Me Handy)" offered a breath of fresh air for a significant portion of the viewing audience. "The Red Green Party not only stands for change," said American Idol Commentator for usux.com, Joey "Boner" da Bohn, "they're about not choosing the lesser of two evils. Dude, he is the mack daddy!" Less influential minor party performers included Libertarian Art Larouche ("Someone Pay Attention To Me!"), Reform Party Joey Feelgood ("Perot Who?"), Socialist Cole Philipe ("We Could Be Sweden"), and Constitutional Party Ryan DuPont ("No, We're Not Libertarians!"). -- Chuck "Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung. " - Voltaire