Ever since President Barack Obama failed to impress in Wednesday night debate, the Democrats have been searching for the right Romney-attack angle. This time, it’s Big Bird.
Not only are they promoting the idea that Mitt Romney wants to fire Big Bird the first chance he gets, and they are using Twitter hashtag campaign to make sure the word gets out.
Hollywood stars like Will-I-Am and Katy Perry are rallying support for Obama by spreading the hashtag #SaveBigBird.
Obama is also not backing down with his attacks on Romney and has found a niche in mocking Romney’s PBS comments.
“When he was asked what he’d actually do to cut spending and reduce the deficit, his big example is to go after public television. So for all you moms and kids out there, don’t worry — someone is finally getting tough on Big Bird,” the President said during a rally at George Mason University yesterday. “Rounding him up. Elmo has got to watch out, too. Governor Romney plans to let Wall Street run wild again, but he’s going to bring down the hammer on ‘Sesame Street.’ It makes perfect sense.”
But despite what the Democrats are trying to argue, Romney’s original comments during Wednesday’s debate were less than controversial and certainly didn’t involve anything about eliminating PBS or Sesame Street. All he wants to do is cut the government’s funding to PBS, which is a very small portion of PBS’ total revenue.
“I’m sorry, Jim, I’m going to stop the subsidy to PBS,” he said. ” I like PBS. I love Big Bird. I actually like you, too. But I’m not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for it.”
But it looks like the Obama campaign will stop at nothing to keep Romney from topping Obama in the polls, even if it means creating a false support rally in the name of Big Bird.
They have been sending out non-stop e-mails about Romney’s PBS comments in order to garner more donations for the last stretch of the election season.
“On Wednesday night, Mitt Romney told us he’d fire Big Bird,” one e-mail read. “President Obama’s got our back. He’s got Big Bird’s back — and Bert’s, Ernie’s, Elmo’s, and the rest of the gang on the Street. We’ve got to get his. #SaveBigBird and get on #TeamObama.”
When real debates about policy and the economy just aren’t working for you, you have to get creative and that’s exactly what the Obama campaign seems to be doing.
