And it was not in an election for president. 60% more people voted for an American Idol television talent program candidate over the last 24 hours than cast a vote in either party’s 50 Presidential primaries to date. The numbers are stunning:

97.5 million people voted in the 24-hours following the televised songfest grand finale which aired Tuesday night.

58 million people voted in all of the Democratic and Republican primaries combined held to date (including DC, Guam and The US Virgin Islands) with three contests (Puerto Rico, South Dakota and Montana) remaining.

By critical accounts, the television contest this year was rather dull, contained a lack of controversy and a wealth of talented singers.

The two party’s campaigns for President have, for the most part, been the most riveting, exciting and indeed longest running political battles in history with a wealth of interesting and exciting candidates and positions.

Almost 49 million (or 55%) votes went to 25-year old bartender David Cook whilst 37 million (or 43%) votes went to 17-year old prodigy David Archuleta.

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have almost equally split the 36 million votes cast thus far. Add in John McCain’s total and the three top combatants combined almost equal David Cook’s total.

American idol ran over a shortened 16-week schedule due to the Hollywood writer’s strike.

The Presidential primaries began in January of 2006 and there are still six almost months to go until the general election on 04 November.

One can vote for an Idol contestant regardless of age and, in theory, one could both have and use more than one telephone to inflate a total.

Of course in large ward politics cities of Chicago, Boston and New York, the phrase “vote early, vote often” often had special meaning.

More than 30 million people (as expected) tuned in to the Idol finale on FOX

It looked good for civics and history teachers everywhere as the ABC Television Philadelphia Debate in mid-April attracted a very strong 10 million viewers for the first hour.

Then, alas, American Idol came on at 9:00 pm that evening and the show won the hour with 13.5 million viewers.

So the over-riding question? What does this result say about politics and the power of television vs. the general apathy of American voters in Presidential politics? Can the general election keep up in the ratings battle or will World Series hangovers steal the headlines.

Hey, I know it’s only May, but the two teams with the best records in baseball are the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs. A Sox-Cubbies World Series would shatter every viewing record and reduce an Obama-McCain debate to two guys in a pub in Wales and I won’t be one of them.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.