Clay Wins USA Today Poll With A Landslide

It's no surprise...Clay won the USA Today Idol Chatter poll with a huge landslide.

USA Today was conducting a poll to see who Idol fans would have chosen as the American Idol 2 winner now that it's been over 4 years since Ruben Studdard was crowned champ.

Here are the results, as posted on the USA Today Idol Chatter blog:

A lot of you called this the best season in Idol history, and the passion has clearly endured. I really enjoyed reading the votes that came in with added commentary on the finalists; very illuminating.

Clay Aiken won by a landslide, with an overwhelming percentage of the first-place votes and better than 40% more points than his nearest competitor.

1. Clay Aiken (2)

2. Kimberley Locke (3)

3. Ruben Studdard (1)

4. Josh Gracin (4)

5. Trenyce (5): A lot of love for Trenyce in the virtual room; her subsequent seeming disappearance was a mystery to many.

6. Rickey Smith (8): Big move up for Rickey, whose residual popularity I was unaware of. His supple voice and friendly personality seemed to be his big strong points.

7. Kimberly Caldwell (7): Massive gap between Rickey and Kim C., whose chief rallying point seemed to be her survival as a cable TV personality.

8. Carmen Rasmusen (6): Took the hit when Rickey rose two notches; she was close in points to Kim C. but had pretty lackluster support.

9. Vanessa Olivarez (12): How about this? She very nearly knocked off Carmen for 8th, retaining a lot of good will despite getting to perform in the finals only once.

10. Julia De Mato (10): A few strong supporters but clearly not enough.

11. Charles Grigsby (11): Despite my bias in favor of him (thanks, Howard Roark), he had a pretty dismal showing. He did get one third-place vote, though (and it wasn't from me).

12. Corey Clark (9 -- eliminated without a vote for failing to disclose a previous arrest): Corey has clearly left a very bad taste in your collective minds. Despite one, possibly non-serious first-place vote (or was it from Paula under a pseudonym), he had almost zero support.