That'd Be My Response Too

I wouldn't call it 'too' painful to watch.  But it might be close.  To paraphrase an old country song:  Mama, don't let your daughters grow up to be beauty pageant contestants.

Man do we need more maps, and uh, stuff.  Like for helping the kids in South Africa and stuff.

Enjoy, educationally:

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The children be our future,

Thomas More

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Comments

[Tim]

Leno also played that clip last night, although he didn't have the subtitles.

I wonder if we're being too hard on her. Granted, her answer is incoherent, riddled with fillers, and I have no idea why South Africa got involved. On the other hand, she was in an extremely high pressure situation being asked to answer a difficult question ("Why? Because they're stupid. That's why."). I can come up with a better answer than hers, but only after a bit of thought (and more time than she had).

I feel like this is symptomatic of how we treat our politicians. We pepper them with difficult questions that may not have right answers, and then destroy them when they slip up. I would much prefer that the media examine and compare politicians' thought out responses to real issues (Iraq, social security, etc.) instead of playing their sound bites ("We need a bipartisan solution to destroying the other political party."). Or maybe this is society's problem (not the media) for paying attention to the sound bites instead of the substance?

Maybe we could have the potential Miss Teen USAs take the SATs and compare their scores. Or have them fill in the 50 states. And their capitals. Or we could stop pretending that intelligence is considered in the Miss (Whatever) contest.

Tim

[Philomena]

Tim, I think you're presenting a lot of excuses. Her answer was TERRIBLE. She collected every buzz word she knew and strung them together, and not in the right order.
They didn't just pick someone off the street (in which case you could maybe have excused them for lack of a decent education). They were interviewing a candidate for Miss Teen USA, and despite our suspicion that intelligence doesn't rank highly on the list of qualifications for the title, I'm sure the organisers of the contest would beg to differ. She should've been able to come up with something better than this. I'm assuming all the other contestants did, otherwise they would all be on YouTube. Likewise, politicians are expected to string words together in a coherent way. They are in a profession centered around communication. If you can't communicate effectively, then you shouldn't be a politician. I'm not saying we should pound on every politician for every slip-of-the-tongue, but if you start listening to Miss Teen USA and thinking she really didn't sound that bad, that's a problem. She may not be an idiot, but she really messed this one up.

[Thomas More]

Tim and Philomena,

Man oh man, if our politicians only looked half that good, then we'd have something! (Just kidding.) My point is that I find it amusing/sad that Tim has found a similarity between teen beauty pageants and the leaders of the most powerful and prosperous free nation in the history of the world. That has to be one of the seven signs of the Apocalypse, doesn't it?

Tim has a point though. The media sells more copy with "gotcha" rather than actual substance. But, as Philomena points out, the job of the leader is to be ready to lead. Leading in a republic requires the ability to explain where we are going, and where we ought to go. The more you know your stuff, and the more skill you have in articulating it, the less likely you'll be 'got'. That said, I know some politicians have used responses like the contestant's on purpose. There is a story from a former President Eisenhower staffer who asked the President how he'd respond to a question about an international crisis. Eisenhower said, basically "leave the press to me." When asked at the press conference about the situation, he gave a rambling, nearly incoherent response about all things that left everyone confused, but thinking he had said something--which he deliberately had not. This might strike you as a bad move by him, but I think otherwise. Sometimes presidents have to diffuse situations quietly to save lives. If getting the press to leave you alone for a while is what it takes, so be it. I doubt, however, Miss Teen Whatever's response was to try to calm Fallujah down.

The clip also raises questions about the questioners. There are not a lot of interviewers who ask good questions, about subjects that we care about--and I'm referring here to political reporters. Even worse, no one seems to know how to ask the logical follow ups that are needed when a politician ducks an answer. The most striking example I can remember is when Clinton sat down with Jim Lehrer of the 'News Hour' to diffuse the Lewinsky scandal.

Lehrer asked if he had an affair with Lewinsky. Clinton said something like "I am not having an affair with her."

Then they went on to something else, missing Clinton's change in tense. Lehrer could have saved the country months of turmoil with the follow-up: "I understand you are not, but did you?"

As to the pageant, their is a question, again, about the question. Why do we care what she thinks is the reason? No one is watching to find out about a teenager's views on American geography-knowledge woes. If you want the pageant to be more than just looks, fine. Ask her about her goals and humanitarian efforts--something the winner usually engages in. Tim's point about dropping the intelligence portion (for hotness only) isn't entirely right. The winners are on the road meeting with people, pushing their humanitarian projects, etc. I'm sure the contest's sponsors would like the most articulate (while still pretty) person they can find. The point is, the question was useless, and we got a beyond useless--though painful and funny--answer.

I do, by the way, give her much more slack than a politico in the same situation. Politicians, almost by definition, have to be a bit versed in everything. Beauty contestants need to be beautiful. Those two don't need to overlap. She wasn't running for Senate. As such, I felt a little bad even posting her misery, but I thought it'd start an interesting conversation, which it did!

Philomena is ultimately correct, she gave a horrible answer. This wasn't her first rodeo, she knows she's going to be asked 'thinking' questions. She showed a lack of poise in not thinking through the question and her answer. She should have asked for it to be repeated if she missed it. Instead, she decided to rely on clichés and headlines. Hence:

YouTube for you!

[The Interface]

Another argument for home schooling?

[Thomas More]

Or at least SOME schooling!!

Actually, to Tim's point, she was on the spot and off guard by the question. She could've done better (obviously) but it is hard to say that she is not educated. I think it might be an argument for increasing public speaking/rhetoric classes though.