Obama Ad Uses Big Bird to Mock Mitt Romney's Economic Policies
A new advertisement produced by President Barack Obama's campaign takes a hit at GOP candidate Mitt Romney and his recent comments about cutting government funding to PBS and its "Sesame Street" character, the beloved Big Bird.
The advertisement is meant to be a tongue-in-cheek slant to Romney, who in the first 2012 presidential debate last week said he planned to cut public funding to PBS and Big Bird.
The commercial begins by naming notoriously corrupt corporate villains, including Bernie Madoff, Ken Lay, and Dennis Kozlowski, and suggests Big Bird is "the evil genius who towers over them."
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"Big, yellow, a menace to our economy. Mitt Romney knows it's not Wall Street you have to worry about it, it's 'Sesame Street,'" the narrator says snidely.
"It's me, Big Bird!" the eight-foot-tall, yellow puppet chimes in at one point during the commercial.
The advertisement concludes with the narrator saying: "Mitt Romney, taking on our enemies, no matter where they nest" while a clip of "Sesame Street" plays in which Big Bird is going to sleep, or, for the more morbid viewers, dying.
The advertisement is a reference to the Oct.3 first presidential debate, in which debate moderator Jim Lehrer, a former anchor for PBS "NewsHour", asked Romney how he plans to cut the deficit, should he be elected president.
Romney responded by saying that he would cut government subsidy for PBS, a nonprofit American public broadcasting network.
"I'm sorry Jim, I'm gonna stop the subsidy to PBS," Romney told Lehrer, who has worked as an anchor for the nonprofit for decades.
"I like PBS, I love Big Bird, I actually like you too, but I'm going to stop borrowing money from China to pay for things we don't need," the GOP nominee added.
Romney's Big Bird comments have become a focal point of the election, with the Obama camp, political commentators, and savvy meme generators capitalizing on Romney's alleged dismissal of a well-known American icon, Big Bird.
While Obama called Romney's choice to eliminate PBS and Big Bird an "absurd solution" to reducing the nation's deficit, the GOP candidate's campaign shot back, referencing Obama's 2008 election statement in which he said politicians attempting to defend themselves make "a big election about small things."
