Did They Doublecheck the Votes From Palm Beach County?

Props to silver-throated behemoth Ruben Studdard (who stands 6'4" and weighs 360 pounds according to Fox News Channel) for winning last night's American Idol competition. He beat out Clay Aiken, who appeared throughout the competition as an equally talented yet slightly disconcerting mix of a Martin Short character and a country-club version of David Bowie.

Most interesting about last night's show was the closeness of the final tally, with only about 130,000 votes out of 24 million cast separating the two. That's a presidentially slim margin of victory and it further feeds a sense that we live in an age of indeterminacy and/or inconclusiveness (I can't make up my mind). When not faced with elections in which the actual winner is up for grabs, we're encountering wars that are won but never over, murders that are never solved (e.g. Jon Benet), and on and on.