Tonight is the final night of competition for this season of American Idol. Finally! Who will be the winner? Will it be David Cook, the 25 year old bartender from Blue Springs, MO? Or will it be David Archuleta, the barely 17 year old Mormon from Murray, UT. The singer that deserves to win is clear to most people. Unfortunately, because of American Idol’s ridiculous voting policy, that person probably won’t be crowned the next American Idol.

Clearly David Cook is the more marketable contestant and one that could actually make it as a popular recording artist. His rendition of the Who’s Baba O’Reilly (you know…the Teenage Wasteland song) gave you goose bumps, while his daring version of Billie Jean rivaled the original remake by Chris Cornell. If you don’t know who Chris Cornell is, then you have no business judging music. If you do, you will know that matching anything he does vocally is an amazing feat. David Cook is a rocker who’s face can be on the cover of albums.

David Archuletta, on the other hand, belongs in the little boys choir for the Church of Latter Day Saints. Every song he sings sounds exactly alike, with a voice that sounds like he’s barely hit puberty. Ballad after ballad of Jesus songs that sound like they came straight out of a evangelistic revival circus tent have somehow put him in the final. I just don’t get it.

Well…actually I do get it. The little girls like him. And thanks to the f&%#ed up voting policies of American Idol that has every single 10 year girl in the country sending daddy’s cell phone bill through the roof by sending text after text of votes for David Archuleta, we are once again going to see a flop of an American Idol.

Instead of seeing some actual “star caliber” contestants like Michael Johns and Carlie Smithson, we are left with a competition that no one cares about. Yet Fox continues to wonder why ratings for American Idol are declining. To me the answer is obvious – the voting policy sucks. Their target demographic should be the ones who actually make money and spend it purchasing songs and records – people 16 to 35 years old. Yet these are not the people doing all the voting. Sure they might vote once or twice for their favorite artist. But how does this compete with the 10 year tween that votes hundreds of times for David Archuleta? It doesn’t. As a result, the contestants that appeal to the older crowd get eliminated and Fox pisses off their target demographic. Dumb asses.

To me the solution is obvious. Let each household or cell phone vote once. In the event that a whole family wants to vote, they can even let a single household 5 times. But they need to cap it somehow. I just don’t understand why they wouldn’t. Do they really need to rack up 45 million votes?

Of course they do!…its in their contract with AT&T. How else can AT&T claim to be such a popular wireless service other than to handle American Idol voting. The more the better. I bet it even improves AT&T’s usage statistics. At the end of the day, its all about business. Those greedy bastards.