Every now and then someone conducts a poll testing Americans' knowledge of current events, civics and history, and adjudges the U.S. a nation of ignoramuses. So I wasn't surprised when Newsweek rolled out one last week, with the snooty title of "Dunce Cap Nation."

It is indeed discouraging to learn that 40 percent of Americans still think Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11. But the number that jumped out at me was this: 59 percent of resondents to the Princeton Survey Research Associates poll successfully identified Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. This finding compares well with the 18 percent who named the latest winner of American Idol (though Pelosi did benefit from a multi-choice offering). Thus Newsweek lost the opportunity to follow up its numbingly predictable headline with the predictable analysis that Americans are spending too much time watching junk TV instead of CSPAN.

Pelosi's relatively high name ID is undoubtedly attributable to the publicity surrounding her status as the first female Speaker. So even if Americans don't know much about history, they do seem to notice when they are living through it, unless the subject is Saddam Hussein and 9/11.