WAIT...A beauty pageant contestant who doesn't understand POLITICS? Is that even POSSIBLE?

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Some beauty queens might expect to get questions about world peace. But the question asked of the newly minted Miss America on Saturday night touched on a less generalized topic: secrets outlet WikiLeaks.

"Everybody's talking about the WikiLeaks, how do we balance people's right to know with the need for government security?" Teresa Scanlan was asked.

"You know when it came to that situation it was actually based on espionage, and when it comes to the security of our nation we have to focus on security first, and then people's right to know," the teen replied.

"Because it's so important that everyone in our borders is safe, and so we can't let things like that happen and they must be handled properly, and I think that was the case," she added.

Her answer, concise as it were, was actually wrong.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/america-wikileaks-based-espionage/

[Demit]

1. 'Her answer, concise as it were'?

What are the author trying to say there?

[MrModerate]

2. Often these pageantists wander all over the rhetorical map in Palinesque fashion . . .

And end up figuratively crawling up their own backsides. This answer, though a watered-down version of someone's wigged out reality, actually made some logical sense.

Factually wrong on multiple levels, but not completely incoherent (which is the norm for this sort of thing).