Miss Culture War 2010

What do you do if you’re a third-rate beauty pageant desperate for attention? If you’re the Donald Trump owned Miss USA contest you stick with a winning formula: ask beautiful woman culture war questions :

Rima Fakih (Miss Michigan), a Lebanese immigrant who told pageant organizers her family celebrates both Muslim and Christian faiths, attended a Catholic school in New York. But the answer she gave to her interview question won’t make the nuns happy:

During the interview portion, Fakih was asked whether she thought birth control should be paid for by health insurance, and she said she believed it should because it’s costly.

“I believe that birth control is just like every other medication even though it’s a controlled substance,” Fakih said.

The first runner-up, Morgan Elizabeth Woolard (Miss Oklahoma), probably wishes she had drawn that softball question:

Woolard handled the night’s toughest question, about Arizona’s new immigration law. Woolard said she supports the law, which requires police enforcing another law to verify a person’s immigration status if there’s “reasonable suspicion” that the person is in the country illegally.

She said she’s against illegal immigration but is also against racial profiling.

“I’m a huge believer in states’ rights. I think that’s what’s so wonderful about America,” Woolard said. “So I think it’s perfectly fine for Arizona to create that law.”

“The Office” actor Oscar Nunez was booed as he asked the question and asked the audience to wait until he finished the question before they reacted.

You’ll remember that last year, the eventual winner Carrie Prejean (Miss California) was booed after she said that marriage should be between a man and a woman when asked about whether states should legalize same-sex marriage.

Next year the judges should just ask what they really want to know: “Are you now or have you ever been a conservative?”

By the way, for more on the debate over illegal immigration, see Peter Skerry’s article in today’s On the Square feature .

Woolard handled the night’s toughest question, about Arizona’s new immigration law. Woolard said she supports the law, which requires police enforcing another law to verify a person’s immigration status if there’s “reasonable suspicion” that the person is in the country illegally.

She said she’s against illegal immigration but is also against racial profiling.

“I’m a huge believer in states’ rights. I think that’s what’s so wonderful about America,” Woolard said. “So I think it’s perfectly fine for Arizona to create that law.”

“The Office” actor Oscar Nunez was booed as he asked the question and asked the audience to wait until he finished the question before they reacted.

You’ll remember that last year, the eventual winner Carrie Prejean (Miss California) was booed after she said that marriage should be between a man and a woman when asked about whether states should legalize same-sex marriage.

Next year the judges should just ask what they really want to know: “Are you now or have you ever been a conservative?”

By the way, for more on the debate over illegal immigration, see Peter Skerry’s article in today’s On the Square feature .