The hard part here is that this was an amazing final 2, although not an amazing night of performances. I agree that it's Idol's best final pair since Carrie Underwood and Bo Bice in season 4. In fact, either one would be 's best winner since Carrie.Overall ranking for the finale, surprising as it is:
1) Kris. Great performance on "Ain't No Sunshine". "What's Going On" was always a lousy song, and Kris did it as well as could be expected without duplicating Marvin Gaye's production. If Simon wanted to give Kris a socially conscious song that would have been interesting, I would have loved to see him tackle Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth" or even Frank Zappa's "Trouble Coming Every Day" (which is ripe for rearrangement) -- but Simon may not know those songs. Kara's song sucked, but they both sucked on it.
2) Adam. I love his version of "Mad Love". I was a little disappointed in "A Change Is Gonna Come", but it reminded me that I was never a Sam Cooke fan; I always thought his songs were overrated (of course, he was dead before I ever heard them, so maybe that made a difference). I would have loved to have heard Adam on a real vocal-driven folk song, such as one of P.F. Sloan's many topical hits from the 1960s (how about "Let's Live for Today"? "Let Me Be"? "Oh, society's goal is to be part of the whole/That may sound good to you, not to me." or "I am what I am, and that's all I ever can be.") Kara's song sucked, but they both sucked on it.
Nevertheless, I voted for Adam as overall winner.