Posted on 08/27/2007 5:56:30 PM PDT by MotleyGirl70
Don't know much about ... geography?
Lauren Caitlin Upton, Miss South Carolina Teen USA, whose mangled response to a pageant question has become an Internet sensation, will have a second chance to answer it on Tuesday morning's Today show.
"I didn't do anything wrong," she told South Carolina's The State newspaper. "I wasn't expecting [the question]. I lost my train of thought."
She added she "completely misunderstood" the question, which she'll get a second stab at on Today.
The show's host, Mario Lopez, tells PEOPLE he wanted to help her, but was told that he couldn't talk to the contestants while they were answering questions.
"It was a very intense moment. It's live TV. You don't know what the question is until you get up there. And I believe that she misunderstood it. She went down the wrong road and couldn't figure out how to get back to the right one," he says. "I felt really badly for her."
The beauty contestant's video on YouTube has received more than 2 million hits thanks to her amazingly off-the-mark answer at Friday night's pageant, when she was queried about why Americans are so bad at geography.
Specifically, she was asked why one-fifth of Americans can't find the United States on a map.
"I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don't have maps," she ventured.
During her meandering response, she also tossed in out-of-the-blue references to "the Iraq" and "Asian countries" and their need for the support of the American educational system in identifying the United States on the map.
Upton is described as a varsity athlete and student leader at Lexington High School, where she graduated in June with a 3.5 GPA.
Despite the on-camera gaffe, Upton finished as third runner-up.
Translation:
“I personally believe that 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 in 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., er, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future for our children.”
Stupid is as stupid does.
She should enter politics; completely ignoring the question asked and rambling off on a tangent is a skill that is highly-prized in political circles.
She’s still smarter than any MSNBC gal.
“I personally believe that 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 in 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., er, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future for our children.”
Just be glad she wasn’t asked to explain why we Michiganders show our location in the state by pointing to a spot on our hand.
“Some people don’t have hands”
There’s a pole with that girl’s name on it.
She is so stupendously cute that I readily forgive her. But more importantly, I can sympathize with getting tangled up like that in a pressurized moment on live TV. Our prez does it and he’s a sharp fellah.
Beauty pageant boilerplate and buzz words gone badly awry.
I'm sure glad you're not from Florida.
That nasty woman with the stupid question should be sent away.
She's cute.
Tangled up? wow, she was so incoherent she sounded like Al Sharpton stumbling into a KKK rally.
She's pretty but someone forgot to razz that wheel.
So see, I'm nobody's fool.
>>”I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don’t have maps,” she ventured.
During her meandering response, she also tossed in out-of-the-blue references to “the Iraq” and “Asian countries” and their need for the support of the American educational system in identifying the United States on the map.
Upton is described as a varsity athlete and student leader at Lexington High School, where she graduated in June with a 3.5 GPA.
Despite the on-camera gaffe, Upton finished as third runner-up.<<
Mental note: If I ever move to Lexington, the kids go to private school.
I feel the same way... my heart was breaking for her as she stumbled through that response.
I felt like she'd prepared herself for absolutely EVERY possible question... except that one of course!
We'll see what kind of backbone she has when she's telling this story to her grandchildren... hopefully it will be along the lines of: "Well, you think you goofed! One time, back in ought 7 when I was a runn'n fer Miss Teen USA. I was totally bushwacked... and do you know what I said!?
My husband fell for her immediately and wanted to go slay any dragons that would be mean to her. I thought she was adorable and obviously anxious not to mention dumb and overcoached. And it was a bad question,,did they want her to bash our country when she shoulda gotten a chance to talk about world peace!
I thought the question was straight-forward and simple. It's not as if she was given a question about U.S. foreign policy in "the Middle East Iraq".
straight-forward=straightforward
Mm-mm! Word salads are tasty.
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