Finishing 2nd is the new 1st place!

Being a winner is overrated!

...at least, that is what has been happening lately. Coming in 2nd has been the REAL winning solution! If you don't believe me, just ask Adam Lambert!

Adam is just the latest in this trend of people finishing in 2nd place, who were SUPPOSED to win. American Idol has never had a contestant like Adam before. He was the only reason many people even watched the show this season. Without Adam, this season would've been a total SNOOZEfest! I mean, Kris Allen is a very nice, talented guy who will probably do pretty well for himself (thanks to his handsome looks!...do you really think he would've made it as far if he didnt look like that?) Kris may have won, but he needed Adam in order to do so...people were not necessarily voting FOR Kris; they were voting AGAINST Adam. Did Lambert peak too early?

Or what about Susan Boyle?

This silly, yet lovable lady was the clear favorite to win Britain's Got Talent. I mean, her first audition was a massive youtube hit! Just like Lambert, people assumed that she was already the winner WAY before the finale even happened. What could have possibly gone wrong?

In this case, I believe the voting public got it right. The dance group that defeated her, Diversity, was more talented in my humble opinion.

Who? Who is Diversity? See, you don't even know who they are...making Boyle the clear winner here.

Although Boyle is a very good singer, her voice does not even hold a candle to singers such as Adam Lambert or Kris Allen. She was a nice, inspiring story of an underdog succeeding. She may not have won the show, but if she is smart, she could use this exposure and success to have a very nice, comfortable rest of her life.

Speaking of a 2nd place winner...

Everyone's favorite gay marriage opponent may have been the runner-up in this year's Miss USA pageant, but she clearly came out of this with the most publicity!

Miss North Carolina who?

And even if you were 'up' enough with your current events and knew that Miss North Carolina was the winner, do you know what her name is? Didn't think so...

Carrie is basically the second coming of Christ within the religious, Christian communities. I mean, in a world that is becoming increasingly more liberal, she has risen from the ashes and the conservatives have placed her so high on top of a pedestal that she could do NO wrong! Nude photos? Boob job? No problem...as long as she continues to speak out against those evil, sinful gays!

I believe that this trend of finishing 2nd started last year when little David Archuleta lost American Idol to David Cook.

From the first notes of Archie's version of John Lennon's "Imagine," he was dubbed the winner. I mean, he had little girls (and grown gay men) eating out of the palm of his hand. In the year since, David Cook has come out as the bigger winner, with his album selling about double what Archie sold, so the American voting public actually got it correct. However, little Archie also came out a winner. With many TV spots, a hit album, a radio hit and covers of Teenie-bopper magazines...can't really complain about that.

So, who needs a winner? The real winning solution is a combination of EXPOSURE and NOT COMPROMISING WHO YOU ARE!

In each of the cases above, the 2nd place winners have all stayed true to who they are and their beliefs. All they needed was to have their talents and opinions exposed to the world.

It also helps that those who finished 1st were bland, boring or rather generic...