So this isn't exactly directly related to politics, but I feel it is a part of current events worth talking about anyway. By now we've all seen the dreadful Miss South Carolina video in which the Miss Teen USA contestant is asked why she thinks 20% of Americans can't find America on a world map, and her bumbling answer makes her look even more stupid than those 20% of Americans in question.

Due to the nature of the internet and YouTube, this girl's little gaffe has been magnified to enormous lengths and has quickly become the number one video on YouTube and Technorati. Some feel we should take pity on the girl and stop making fun of her – well, I get that's she's 18 and very young, but "the Iraq" and "um like such as and" are not really up to par with 18-year-old vocabulary. But I think that her situation points out something very important: getting a good education is very, very important, even if you're a beauty pageant contestant. Especially if you're a beauty pageant contestant! If these girls are supposed to be representative of the typical American girl, and Miss South Carolina can't string together a basic sentence and has only a very fuzzy knowledge of geography at best, that does not bode well for America.

I think she very much exemplified that night the reason why we need to put more emphasis on the value of a good education for everyone in America. And it's up to the politicians we elect to make sure that our education system is in good shape. Many of the 2008 presidential candidates have already been speaking out about the need to develop better schools, better universities, and offer more scholarships and grants, so that more young people can go to college and have better lives. After all, we all know that young people are the future of our nation — so our government needs to make sure they are helping develop sound, bright minds for the future. There is no doubt that attitudes toward education will play a key role in the 2008 elections.