So, by now everyone’s heard of Miss Teen South Carolina, and her slightly… incoherent response to the question “Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can’t locate the United States on a world map. Why do you think is?”:

I personally believe the U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some…people out there in our nation don’t have maps, and, uh, I believe that our education like such as South Africa and, uh, the Iraq everywhere like, such as and…I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., err, uh, South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future for our…

There’s a video of it available if you haven’t already seen it, and can bear to watch.

Needless to say, the girl’s been dragged all over the Internet (and American TV) and looks like a bit (OK, a lot) of a fool. I even added my own slightly unkind comment on Stranger Fruit’s post about it (which is also where I also stole the above transcription of her answer from.):

I can’t comment on the education system (not being American, and knowing some very smart Americans, but that was just painful.

I’m going to put it down to a combination of nerves, not having a clue, and having been trained to sound like she has a considered, thoughtful (and pro American) opinion on whatever she’s asked. Oh, and being one of that one fifth of Americans. ;)

I’d like to retract that insult at the end. More than that; I think pretty much everyone is being extremely unfair.

OK, so maybe she isn’t the sharpest tool in the box; I really don’t know, but the point is, from that answer alone, none of us do. She was asked a tough question, and had to answer it within very tough constraints. I’ve had more than 30 seconds to think about it, and I’m not up on stage under TV lights, and I honestly can’t think of a good answer that wouldn’t automatically lose me public sympathy. She needs to sound thoughtful, kind, considerate, compassionate and patriotic, and she’s been given a question to which the only possible answers are obfuscated versions of “because they’re stupid,” or “because the education system sucks.” She’s been coached to talk for the full 30 seconds, because it makes it look like she has a lot of thoughts to express, and she’s been coached to try to touch on a couple of key sympathetic talking points — Iraq, the disadvantaged in Africa, “the children” — so she did the best she could, and tried to find a way to talk about those and bring it back to the question. She didn’t succeed, and looked pretty stupid in the failing, but I don’t think that necessarily means she is stupid. Anyone can get thrown by an unexpected question and stumble around looking for an answer for 30 seconds; Miss Teen South Carolina just happened to do it on stage in front of a TV camera.