Opinion: ‘American Idol’ considers 3 presidential contenders and votes them off

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Actually, Sens. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain were only invited on the popular program for cameo appearances tonight. And, thankfully none was asked to sing. And, once again, Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul, at 72 the second oldest guy still in the race, was left out. (So was Ralph Nader, who’s 74, but doesn’t do TV games.)

Their assignment, as our fellow blogger Carl Lavin chronicles over at Forbes.com, was simply to make charitable pitches to donate to charity. The two straight-faced Democrats did just that, offering ever so sincere pleas for giving.

So did the second oldest candidate in the White House race. But McCain also slipped in a couple of zingers. He said Idol was a lot like the ongoing political primaries except the television show counted votes from Michigan and Florida.

Then, at the end McCain said he had to get back to work on his immigration reform bill -- and British judge Simon Cowell better watch out.

--Andrew Malcolm