We didn't get off to the best start

So Alexis Grace wasn't as good as the judges said she was, but she was still probably the clear best girl on Tuesday night. And the same goes for Danny Gokey--he wasn't deserving of the whooping and hollering from Paula, Randy and Kara, but he was good, and with his backstory (but please, friend of Danny Gokey, holding up a photo of Danny and his late wife for the camera may be starting to push it), it was clear he was going to the final 12. But Michael Sarver? Wow, Simon has even more power than I thought. It's clear that his sort of odd endorsement of him Tuesday night--when he clearly isn't much more than a middle of the pack singer in the group and a pleasant but far from memorable vocalist--must have helped push him over the edge. I mean, really, was there anything special about his performance Tuesday night or Wednesday night that said to you, "Hey, this guy can win American Idol?" All I said was, "This guy might, if he's lucky, finish tenth."

And it's a shame, because there were at least two other singers, Anoop and Ricky Braddy, who were better than him last night and just generally have better voices. And Ricky used to serve chicken fingers--is that so much better than being an oil roughneck or whatever it is that they've told us about Michael to garner sympathy for him? I presume Anoop and Ricky will be brought back for the wildcard round, but who knows how many other good singers they'll have to battle against? By the way, my other picks for possible wildcards in the group would be Tatiana and perhaps Ann Marie. And speaking of wildcards, why did they do that to poor Tatiana? When they said Anoop and Michael were within 20,000 votes of each other (the most information they've ever given out about a semifinal voting contest), it was clear that they were two and three in the guys, and that Danny was number one (because there's no way he was behind both of those guys.) That means Tatiana was no better than the fifth biggest vote getter overall, and yet they tried to make her think she might have gotten the most votes. Those AI producers--they just love to treat people cruelly for our amusement.

But I'm not angry. I spent the night at the Capitals hockey game and saw Alexander Ovechkin score one of the most amazing goals you'll ever see--and certainly the best goal I've ever seen in person. Watch it here. It's much better than any performance from Tuesday night's Idol.

Fingerhut out.