Well, if the songs are going to be presented as originally recorded then the best production will win. But that is pretty much what you said all along. That means that Tammy's song which has a few flaws probably will not win because just like American Idol itself, it becomes a popularity contest and human nature will dictate that the voters will be listening for a prefectly recorded song. I could be wrong. Perhaps there is a common discernment that can sort out production from structrual content. I know when I vote, I will try my best to try to seperate the song from the production.

And perhaps there is a collective mind that picks the best song. I normally think a crowd is a little dumber that the average but I heard of this experiment that confimed that there is a collective accuracy in the masses. In the experiment- jelly beans were stuffed in a jar and the one who guessed the the closest to the actual amount wins the prize- Fine so far, but the researchers did something else. They recorded ever guess and then averaged all the guesses. In experiment after experiment, they found out that the average of all the guesses were often precisely the actual number in the jar; and that the larger the sample of guesses, the more likely that the average would be precisely the actual number. Spooky.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." - Albert Einstein