American Idol Power Ranking - 2008 Top 12

1. Carly Smithson - Fun, pretty, an amazing performance all around and all the way through. Told my wife to buy that outfit!

2. David Cook - I would have him at number 1 except his version of Eleanor Rigby was average in the very beginning. The last 3/4 of his performance was as good as last week's Lionel cover.

3. Chekezie (sp?) - If he keeps this up, he'll be here for a few more weeks! Awesome performance. He would be number 2 except if it weren't for David's power vocals.

4. Brooke White - Excellent performance! Is it me or do you think she would rock the house if she performed Stevie Nicks' "Stand Back"? Wife and I thought we heard a little Stevie in her voice tonight.

5. Amanda Overmeyer - Very good performance. May be limited in future weeks but even if she doesn't make the vote near the end, she'll no doubt make a CD worth your $15.00. She could pull a great rendition of Rod Stewart's "You're In My Heart" (similar to The Clark Bros. from the Next Great American Band). Love the hair this week!

6. Michael Johns - I thought it was better than the judges collectively gave him credit for. Tough song to tackle and he pulled it off well. Anyway, it starts going downhill from here...

7. Syesha Mercado - Great voice, average performance, hard for me to say this because I live 5 minutes north of Sarasota's airport. She needs to tackle something and give it something special, she's crusing right now and has a great fan base, but it will not keep her in all the way.

8. Jason Castro - I really like this guy but this week's performance lacked. Very tough song. I'll expect he'll do better if he is here next week.

9. Ramielle - I'm not expecting her to be around much longer - big voice, but terrible song choices are killing her. We haven't seen the best yet.

10. David Hernandez - Just awful. Liked him in the beginning but quickly getting tired of him. Needs a breakout performance next week.

11. David Archelleta - Everyone makes mistakes. How many times have we blundered the words to Rocket Man by Elton John? No doubt he'll be back next week but he would have been better with Hey Jude. Not good that he is not familiar with the Beatles music.

12. Kristy Lee Cook - Carefull Kristy! Zombie John Lennon is looking for you and he's hungry. Turning a Beatles song into a Dolly Parton song should be a punishable offense