Tonight promised to be a night of high drama, not just because of the fallout from recent surprise eliminations (Alexis Grace two weeks ago, Matt Giraud's close call last week), but also because of Danny Gokey's recent tragedy--no, not the death of his wife, which we all already know about, but the tragic death of his grandfather last week.

But there would be the usual drama as well: bad song choices, bad fashion choices, bad Simon/Paula spats (sans crayons this time), and a few genuinely bad performances on this week's vaguely themed "Top Downloads" top nine episode.

But the most dramatic moments ultimately came when the contestants I was previously least enthused about delivered the best vocals of the night. Which just goes to show, you can never be too sure how this whole competition's going to pan out.

First up was Anoop Desai...and Anoop Dogg was back in da house, as Randy Jackson might say. Despite all the flak Anoop caught in past weeks for doing OTT partystarters by Bobby

All right, no disrespect to President Obama or anything...but seriously, couldn't he give his speeches on Monday or Thursday nights? Why does he have to keep bumrushing my show? This week marked the second time this season that Barack has pre-empted American Idol, which seems pretty darn un-American to me. If Obama must speak on Tuesdays, then why doesn't he just go on Idol and give his speech right there in the studio? Let's face it, he'd probably get way more viewers that way (sad but true), and he'd also make a very fair, very well-spoken guest judge. In fact, I suggest our President deliver all his future speeches at the end of Idol results shows, AND finish by reading off the name of that week's eliminated contest. Then Obama can assure the loser that he/she will be just fine, due to his stimulus package. Sound like a plan?

Anyway, while I wait for Obama's cabinet and Fox honchos to mull over that proposal, I'll grudgingly accept the fact that this week's Idol competition was

Before I go into details of this week's American Idol results show, I just want to officially and emphatically state that I'm thrilled and relieved that Adam Lambert wasn't in the bottom this week, after delivering what just might be THE most polarizing and controversial performance in AmIdol history: his Egyptian goth-metal version of Johnny Cash's "Ring Of Fire." Judging from message board activity this week, there were a lot of people in America who hated Adam's Cash cover, but fortunately many voters loved it as well. That makes sense, since the best way to describe Adam's performance is it was a "love it or hate it" sort of affair.

I, of course, loooooovvvvved it.

I do just want to make one very important point here: Regardless of whether or not Adam's "Ring Of Fire" had you burning up or just burning mad, it was NOT at all a disgrace to Johnny Cash's legacy, okay? Please note that Johnny was always sort of outside the country establishment. He was a real rebel, the Man In Black,

When I first learned that tonight'sSt. Patrick's Day broadcast of American Idol would be country-themed, I admit I was bummed. I waskind of hoping for a Celtic theme, personally. How about Pub Songs Night? Sea ShantyNight? Thin Lizzy Night (imagine Adam Lambert singing "Jailbreak") orPogues Night (a slurry "Fairytale Of New York" by Megan Corkrey)? Ormaybe bring Bono on to be a mentor or something? At the very least the Idol stylists could have made the top 11 all wear green (orrisk being pinched by Paula Abdul, in the same manner in which she wanted tosquish David Archuleta's head lastseason). Or the producers could have invited back Irish also-ran Carly Smithson(this time, it would have been appropriate and I wouldn'thave protested). But no. There was no St. Paddy'stheme tonight, which was enough to make me cry into my green beer.

Tonight's countrytheme was also odd because this is the first AmIdolseason in a long time that's featured no straight-up country contestants in the finals.