Jessica Sanchez is, hands down, the better singer. And at 16! You'd wonder what she can/will do five years from now. By then, her voice will have more fully aged, settled and been trained relentlessly in the cutthroat art of professional singing. Heck, she can already out-sing Jennifer Lopez!
But it's really all about the TOTAL package, I think.
It's about the looks, the performance, the polished packaging, the x-factor, the novelty (or the USP, unique selling proposition), the racial, sexual and gender appeal that can cut across a wider demographic and the images that one shows in the collective minds of America.
And, ladies and gentlemen, it has almost always been the WGWG. Or that white guy with guitar.
It's Phillip Phillips.