...it's b/c she's from the US, where people are PROUD to be ignorant--and arrogant enough to defend it. Why else, after having 3 days of supposed humiliation to develop a suitable answer, did she not have one on the Today show? She wasn't humiliated--she went off with her friends and fellow contestants and family and media and giggled about it. And why WAS she booked on the Today show? To show how far you can get if you're cute and dumb?

She talks JUST LIKE the CURRENT OCCUPANT. Her sentences made as much sense as many of his. I had to listen three times before I could determine that her "som-a [some of]" was not actually "Osama" ...

And those at Salon who said it's a geography question--it's NOT a geography question, it's a question about the woeful state of US general knowledge and intelligence. And, as Virginia Woolfe does in A Room of One's Own (though from the diametrically opposite intellectual paradigm), Upton so clearly illustrates through context rather than words--and in her subsequent behavior--the answer to the question. The reason US people are ignorant is that it's acceptable (even sometimes desirable--remember, Gore was "too smart") to be so in this society. Of course it is. Our PRESIDENT is. What more proof do you want?

Now responsible womanhood means defending the stupid? Does this mean that no female human can ever do anything wrong ever (unless they're hard core right wingers)? Do men defend Kevin Federline's performance of Popozao? Was the Star Wars Kid secretly admired and I missed that subtext? I'm sorry, I will never be convinced that I must tolerate fools, regardless of gender.

This stupid, incurious girl could have been raised by the Bushs'. It is utterly, jaw-droppingly appalling that anyone could defend this pathetic creature. She will probably become famous for being an idiot like her doppelgänger, Paris Hilton. I weep for this country.

This person likely had access to a wonderful education, but no one in her life ever bothered to tell her it was important. At least that's my theory.

Sick, just sick.

Even if she didn't hear the questions (and her "because they don't have maps" suggests she did), her answer was akin to a village idiot's. She thinks she can get somewhere by looking like a sex object to old men (and she's probably right). For that, she deserves no award and should take whatever bumps life gives her -- including my citing her as an example of why America can be so ignorant about its own brutality.

No excuses for Upton.

Dumb Blond Débutante Bimbot. She'll marry well, suppress her gag reflex and live happily ever after. I want to be a veterinarian because I like.....children!

As a Southerner, let me assure all of you that there are sniper teams out gunning for this pathetic excuse for a female.

The epitome of Southern Womanhood is Elizabeth Edwards.

The little miss teen twit is a waste of oxygen who needs to be prevented from reproducing.

It was a dumb question. It deserved a dumb answer. If you've never stood before a crowd of people, cameras, and media, while being asked a question you don't know the answer to, but are expected to, then you don't know what that "deer in the headlights" feeling is all about. When you realize you're going to have to wing it, some of us can bullshit our way through, while others have yet to learn the art. Why do you think Bush does so few press conferences? Exactly. I'd rather listen to an 18 year-old girl stumble through a dumb Q&A than that nit-wit we have for a president. Give the girl a break. Pick on somebody your own size.

Where are these "recent polls?" I had no luck finding them on google. Another poster mentioned that the polls included people who didn't also point out Alaska and Hawaii, but again, no link.

After watching Miss South Carolina's answer, such poll results seem plausible. However, that does not mean we should take the teen interviewer's claim as fact without verifying. "Recent polls" is suspiciously vague. I hope Snopes.com gets on the case.

"It's not just her dumbitude, which is considerable.

Its also the perfection of her image, her hair, her lip gloss, and then the total absence of spark in her eyes, "black eyes, like a doll's eyes".

And, she's probably a Republican, which explains a lot about why we're in Iraq and George Bush has yet to be impeached, removed, indicted, tried and convicted, and imprisoned for the rest of his unnatural life."

THERE ya go! Gosh darn it, I had to read through nearly half the comments before I reached the insult de rigeur of the Republicans and the President of the United States!

Of course, the one and only reason that anyone is laughing about the clip is that it featured a gloriously attractive blonde-haired white girl, from red-state South Carolina, in an All-American institution like the Miss Teen USA pageant. Things that all good liberals can work up a mean hate for...

If instead of a pretty blonde from South Carolina, it had been a thoroughly/equally ignorant black girl with dreadlocks from Malcolm X High School in Detroit, uttering exactly the same words, in a Juneteenth Pageant, not a soul would have dared to crack so much as a smile.

And that's probably as it should be. The best humor always arises out of the plight of the underdog, the downtrodden, at the expense of the rich and/or comfortable.

But who in hell wants to be downtrodden?

THE PRESIDENT: Because the -- all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those -- changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be -- or closer delivered to what has been promised.

Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the -- like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate -- the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those -- if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.

Okay, better? I'll keep working on it.