Okay, so she intentionally looked like an idiot. She asked and claimed she didn’t know what the Sixteenth Amendment is, even though she knew it.
Oooh...tricky!
Was that dingbat routine meant to throw the opponent off guard, making him too confident? The rest of the world took it at face value—that she shoots her mouth off about things and then when asked about details, she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.
“Fortunately, senators don’t have to memorize the Constitution. Can you remind me of what the other [Amendments] are?” —Christine O’Donnell
Christine did know the 16th Amendment, just not memorized by number.
First, Christine instantly recognized the 17th Amendment and discussed it in detail.
You would not know the 17th amendment off the top of your head, if you had not been reminded of it in this debate.
Christine then asked to be reminded of which debate the numbers went with.
She was given a 1 word reminder of which amendments those were by number.
With a 1 word reminder, she then launched into a detailed analysis and discussion of those other amendments from memory without any more than a 1 word reminder.