HispanicBusiness

There's an old saying in politics that "conventional wisdom is always wrong." After the 2008 presidential election, Hillary Clinton knows this all too well.

But can the same be said for entertainment and culture? Take a look at Susan Boyle and Adam Lambert.

The two singers burst onto the national stage in 2009 with amazing performances on Britain's Got Talent and American Idol, respectively.

Both were heralded as stars and appeared on a path toward victory. Both, however, placed second in the wildly popular talent shows.

While their losses may feel like shockers, the rise and fall of the two cultural icons have some similarities.

They were critics' choices, which are not necessarily a measure of public sentiment.

Although Lambert and Boyle were clearly more original and unique than the winners, they also sparked visceral contempt among some viewers.

In politics, they call it high negatives and high favorables, meaning the people who loved Lambert and Boyle practically worshipped them; but the people who disliked the two did so with a sense of rage behind their opposition.

Clinton, the would-be-first-female president, suffered the same fate. The people who backed her absolutely loved her. But her opponents despised her. In other words, there was no one in the middle.

Whenever outcomes are determined through Democratic vote -- or in the case of these two shows where the public has the majority voice -- the conventional wisdom of the pundits is almost always wrong. More often than not - the public chooses the middle.

In the case of Idol, millions of voters chose Kris Allen -- a talented, middle-of-the-road, easy listening average, everyday man. Boyle lost to a bunch of easily digestible, talented kids in a dance group called "Diversity."

Another factor in their unlikely losses is the fact that voters are essentially lazy. When they believe their favorite has no shot of losing, they take Democracy for granted. In this case, they assume their favorites will win simply because they are the talk of the Internet.

In the end, life will go on for crushed fans and stunned contestants.

Clinton became Secretary of State; Lambert is probably the most famous Idol contestant ever and will grace the cover of "Rolling Stone" magazine soon; and Boyle? Well, she won't perform for the queen like "Diversity" will, and she checked into a hospital after the loss to get treatment for the stress she endured throughout the show, but conventional wisdom tell us that Boyle will rebound, somehow.