Obama and Sanjaya

He's young and handsome, with looks both pretty and different, and he finds himself one of the front-runners for a position that is nothing less than the very pinnacle of his profession.

It is a position that, by skill and experience, he has shown himself utterly unworthy, but on looks, image and name - all "multicultural" in nature - he finds himself in serious contention even as more qualified and experienced "candidates" have fallen by the wayside. He now has the top prize - America's top prize - clearly within his sights.

At this point it is impossible - literally impossible - to know if I'm talking about Barack Obama, the novice United States Senator seeking the Democratic Party's nomination for president, or Sanjaya Malakar, one of nine finalists for the title of this year's "American Idol."

Clearly, neither Obama nor Malakar are qualified for such high honor. In speech after speech, the senator continues to espouse stale platitudes - does anyone know what he stands for other than "hope"? - that are the equivalent of Sanjaya's amateurish vocals. Are Americans so deliberately tone deaf that they are willing to elevate style over substance? Apparently, yes.

Since John F. Kennedy was elected president in 1960, Democrats have placed a far higher value on style than substance. Today, a Democratic candidate must have "rock star" status to be considered a viable candidate. In fact, that is what the top three Democrats for the 2008 nomination - Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Obama - have all been called at one time or another.

Yet, cumulatively, they have served a a little over a whopping 14 years in the United States Senate. Indeed, in Democrat circles, far more qualified candidates, like Bill Richardson (current Governor of New Mexico, former U.S. Representative, Ambassador to the United Nations, U.S. Secretary of Energy, chairman of the 2004 Democratic National Convention as well as Chairman of the Democratic Governors Association in 2005 and 2006), won't be having fundraisers thrown for them by the likes of David Geffen or Steven Spielberg because they're just not "hip" enough.

The same criteria that has skyrocketed Senator Obama to the heights of the Democratic Party are exactly the standards that teens and preteens use to determine who will be America's newest idol. Of course, when style over substance prevails in the "American Idol" contest, the worst that happens is that some bad music is produced. But when a U.S. president is chosen by this measure, the results can be disastrous. Considering the complicated world we live in, we don't need someone who is a "rock star" we need someone who is rock solid.