One Trick Pony Rides Away

In case you haven't been to the water cooler yet, Chris Daughtry was booted off American Idol last night.

There is significant surprise at this development among just about everyone, prompting even the normally reserved Powerline to use an exclamation point in their assessment of the situation.

Part of the surprise stems from this idea that the producers wanted a white male to win since a no white male has yet to be named American Idol. My response to that is since when does anyone care about white males? We have all the advantages, all the connections, all the privledges, right? Oh, you don't? Well, it doesn't matter. That's the template and it's fair to say that the producers of the AI work from that template.

But what of Chris' talent? He was okay, I guess. Okay in the make-every-song-sound-like-Nickelback kind of way. He could do the angst-ridden, petulant modern rock thing--but that's it. He had no stylistic range to speak of. And he came across as shy. Shy! This guy is supposed to be a rocker--have some confidence!

He lost me weeks ago when he attempted to make people believe that he came up with the arrangement he performed of Johnny Cash's I Walk The Line--an arrangement released years previously by the band Live which he copied note-for-note. The judges were apparently not aware of the Live version and gave him high marks for originality and "Making the song his own." Someone mentioned that he was "Uncomprimising."

The guy tried to pull a fast one, plain and simple. The producers realized what happened the next night (AFTER the voting was over) and had host Ryan Seacrest make a point of saying it was Live's version, but the damage to Chris' credibility was done. At least when he did the Red Hot Chili Peppers version of Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground he acknowledged it. But that still didn't keep the clueless judges from giving him credit for originality.

Chris is a marginal talent. He's not terribly charismatic and he clearly has ethical problems. Definitely not an American Idol.

But I have to say as much as I don't care for him, he's better than the guy that my wife can't decide looks more like a centaur or a leprechaun.