Consider your palate cleansed. I was fretting over the future of the nation last night, as I’m wont to do, when I ran across this. Since then, I’ve watched it about 12 times and it has yet to fail to make me smile. This clip, from last week’s “X Factor” has been up for almost a week and deserves far more than the three million views it has thus far.

This is pure reality TV poetry, from beginning to end. From the 13-year-old who actually looks like a 13-year-old and her unassuming sweetness, to the last jittery look she tosses her parents before going on stage, to the reaction of the judges to her song choice.

“I’m hoping Demi (Lovato) and Britney (Spears) kind of look at me and say, ‘Whoa, that’s just like me. That’s where I was at one time,” the little singer says before taking the stage. By the time she leaves the stage, it’s clear Britney and Demi were never near here. Meet Carly Rose Sonenclar:

Here she is singing the National Anthem at a Mets game earlier this year, making a play for the crucial Allahpundit demographic.