So Milwaukee's first formidable "American Idol" contestant is a modern yacht rocker? Great. The whole city is cheer leading the next Taylor Hicks.
The 28-year-old Gokey has a polished voice, a heart-tugging backstory and an endearing modesty to him, but there are other singers on the show with better voices and 10 times the personality (and love him or hate him, the Pete Wentz-fashioned theater kid Adam Lambert has infinitely more star power). It's cynical to believe that Gokey will win just because he's the safest, most blandly inoffensive contestant.
As part of the Journal Sentinel's round-the-clock Gokey coverage—the disembodied head of Gokey now shares space with the logo at the top of JSOnline, linking to an remarkably comprehensive Gokey special section—Tim Cuprisin predicted Gokey will be the last man standing.
I believe he won't: In the final rounds, he'll be weeded out in favor of a contestant with more character and more sales potential (if you thought Taylor Hicks' sales were embarassing, imagine how bad they would have been if he'd recorded Christian pop albums).
I'll put my money where my mouth is, too: If Gokey wins "American Idol," I will not only give Tim Cuprisin a $50 gift certificate to a restaurant of his choice, but also one of my most prized positions: a framed, autographed 8' by 10'' of Joe Biden:
I love my signed Joe Biden picture, but I am confident that it won't be coming off my wall anytime soon.
