The popular opinion of American Idol's "final four" last night - was that it stunk. I was neck deep in video editing and barely paid attention to the visuals at all though I heard all eight performances, and I have to tell you I agree.

My favorite Syesha Mercado was the only standout to my ears, and those of the Lovely Bride - though Randy, Simon, and Cracky Crackhead didn't seem to agree.

David Cook was off his game in a bizarre sort of way. And American SpaceCadet's champion for 2008 - Jason Castro - appeared to not even try.

Indulge me this one aside on that topic for a minute: Considering that this class of Idol contestants was perhaps the most talented group since the Hicks/McPhee/Daughtry/Yamin year - who the heck kept voting Castro through? The boy laid two of the biggest eggs ever last night - and it wasn't pretty. Carly and Brooke both deserved to be in the contest beyond Castro and last night was perhaps the kind of injustice that causes people to give up on the franchise all together.

Ok, indulge me one more aside... Considering that my friend, and one of the hardest working musicians I've ever known (and having worked in music radio for many years - I've known some of the biggest names in multiple formats)


Brooke Barrettsmith - a contestant from that same year as Hicks/McPhee/Daughtry/Yamin - who made the top 40 and was released without real explanation - was more deserving of being on that stage last night than that pathetic, clownlike, circus vocal midget Jason Castro.

Castro - unlike previous 4th place finishers - like Daughtry - deserves nothing even close to resembling a record contract.

What he really deserves - if anything at all - is to be forced to compete for the singing job on the freecreditreport.com television ads. Though I question his ability to carry tunes of what for him must seem like tough melodies... because for now Jason Castro's musical credit to quote the singing pirate, "is whack!"

Jason Castro's musical future:

Think about something for a moment. Dr. Jeremiah Wright RE-APPEARS, says even more darn loony things than he did before. Obama gets a whole week of horrid press out of the deal and even more questions get raised about Ayers, Rezko, etc.

Consider that polls showed Hillary surging during that time in North Carolina (where believe it or not she did take the lead briefly) AND in Indiana.

Consider that 25% of GOP voters in Indiana did NOT vote for their nominee - which means the power of Rush Limbaugh's "Operation Chaos" was in full effect HELPING Hillary...

Consider that she challenged, cajoled, and egged on the Obama campaign on anything she could think of...

Consider that she won Indiana by barely 18,000 votes in a state where roughly 1.2 million votes were cast...

Consider that for the THIRD time in the election cycle she had to borrow money today ($6 million) to keep her campaign moving ahead... and Obama raised another $40 million or so from donors in the last month...

Consider that Obama has landed Super-delegates at the rate of 5 to 1 since Super Tuesday...

Now consider that within the last hour Hillary still insisted that she was the "stronger candidate" to face John McCain...

Considering all of that - I have come to the conclusive belief...

That Hillary Clinton and Paula Abdul must frequent the same crack dealer!