McCain takes up where Sanjaya left off

About a month ago I wrote of my new-found reluctance to mock Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears "because they both seem really out of control and I think one of them may die."

I sort of feel the same way about John McCain. OK, fine, he isn't at the level of train wreck Lilo or Brit are, but he happens to be a genuine American hero, so I pull for him. I don't think anyone -- no matter what their politics -- should be happy if McCain's last act in public life is that of the confused old man. And, increasingly, I worry that may be his fate.

So acknowledging my tendency towards rose colored glasses when it comes to McCain, I wasn't at all bothered by the latest McCain "incident." For those who missed it Wednesday, McCain, when prompted to answer a question about Iran, started singing "bomb Iran, bomb, bomb, bomb . . ." to the tune of the Beach Boy's classic Barbara Ann. It was all in good fun, and the audience loved it. The critics weren't so sure.

Hmmm . . . fun . . . questionable singing voice . . . approving audience . . . skeptical critics . . . who does that remind you of? Maybe a certain curiously-haired crooner of Indian descent?

Does anyone really think it was a coincidence McCain's controversial town hall singing career began on the exact same day as Sanjaya's controversial American Idol singing career ended?

Right now, in America, we have at least a half-dozen presidential candidates who prove, on most days, that they might have what it takes to run for the highest office in the land. Only one of these candidates has given any indication he can simultaneously run for president and quickly plug an important hole in our pop cultural landscape .

McCain's YouTube singing stardom alone isn't enough to return the Arizona Senator and war hero to the front-runner status he once claimed. But it could be the first step. It took Sanjaya a lot further than anybody thought he could go.

America loves a man with flexible hair

A couple weeks ago a good friend -- although one who doesn't often call -- gave me a ring to ask an important favor: Would I watch American Idol and then vote for the Indian kid with the weird hair at the end?

I told him that I didn't think much of AI, so I probably wouldn't, but this upped my awareness of what has been going on with America's favorite television show and a young man named Sanjaya Malakar.

Not surprisingly my good friend is somewhat of a Howard Stern disciple, and one of the theories on why Malakar, the pitch-less crooner, has lasted so long on the program is the shock jock has been promoting the website and the idea behind votefortheworst.com, which aims to expose what some folks see as the style over substance hypocrisy of American Idol by encouraging voters to select the worst singer still in contention.

Malakar has the doe-eyes and sculpted eyebrows of a Tiger Beat cover boy (as well as unusually versatile hair) and others point to his perceived legions of 12-year old female fans, who would have no qualms about voting for him all day and all night, as the tasteless culprits. There was even talk of a plot where the one billion plus citizens of India, the place of Malakar's father's birth, nefariously flood the voting in what could be America's most important, if not just favorite, electoral contest. Although this seems to have been proven impossible.

Eager to get to the bottom of the foremost quandary of the day, I gave in and watched the show on Tuesday.

I tend to divide technical singing ability into two categories: Better than me and worse than me. The number of those who fall into the first category is gigantic, and those who finds themselves in the second should be reluctant to sing in the shower, let alone on national television.

It didn't take me long to realize that Malaker was clearly in the first category -- and there went my blog post mocking him.

In fact, and already acknowledging I'm not the keenest judge of singing, I really didn't hear that much of a difference between Malaker and the other contestants -- besides the two heavier-set black women, who clearly had the superior voices.

Where Malaker did differentiate himself was with his stage presence and showmanship. The kid was born to be under the lights. He serenaded the audience, danced with the judges and showed, in about thirty seconds, that he was having a great time, critics be damned.

I probably caught him on a good night -- the judges mentioned he was better than usual.

Still, if a few weeks pass and Malaker remains on the show and in the news, I'll probably check out American Idol again. And if his performance is like it was on Tuesday, I'll heed my friends call and vote for the "worst." Maybe even more than once.