John Ostrander: Don’t Mess With The Bird
So, the first Presidential Debate of 2012 is over. Romney appears to have won it, President Obama mostly didn’t show up, and moderator Jim Lehrer took an early retirement. So what’s the big take away from the event?
Mitt Romney wants to deep fry Big Bird.
What Romney actually told Lehrer was “I’m going to stop the subsidy to PBS,” adding, “I like PBS. I like Big Bird. I like you, too.” Earlier this year, he told Fortune magazine “Some of these things, like those endowment efforts and PBS I very much appreciate and like what they do in many cases, but I just think they have to stand on their own rather than receiving money borrowed from other countries, as our government does on their behalf.”
Of course, the fact is that the government doesn’t borrow from other countries specifically to pay for NPR and PBS. They borrow mostly to pay for the war in Afghanistan or, as they have in the past, the war in Iraq which they did to a very large degree. As Neil deGrasse Tyson trenchantly tweeted, “Citing PBS support (0.012% of the budget) to help balance the Federal budget is like deleting text files to make room on your 500 gig hard drive.”
But let’s leave that aside for a moment. Let’s leave aside all the policy wonk moments and the substantive issues and who lied and how much. This is a pop culture column so let’s focus on the pop culture moment – Sesame Street. Big Bird. That’s what they’re really talking about on Twitter, Facebook, and the blogosphere. And the message is that Romney wants to kill Big Bird.
That’s not what the man said. Agree with him or not, he doesn’t think that public funds should go to fund public television. I don’t happen to agree with him (any of you who don’t understand that I’m a liberal and support President Obama haven’t been paying attention) but I understand his view.
It seems to me that the comment was an off-the-cuff remark made in an almost jocular manner. After months of preparation (some would say years), Romney appears to have made an off-the cuff-remark and shot himself in the foot with it and then inserted the foot in his mouth. From the response, you’d think that Big Bird had replaced the eagle as our national emblem. And a reasonable question is – why?
One of my favorite moments in Oceans 13 (the second best of the Ocean films) is when a very irate Al Pacino is telling a very cool (as always) George Clooney that he’s going to get some guys after Clooney’s Danny Ocean and they know how to really hurt a guy. I’m paraphrasing all this but Ocean replies, “I know all the same guys you know and they like me better.”
That’s the deal here. Romney personalized his opposition to funding certain endowments. He could have left his point with the concept that he didn’t think the federal government should help subsidize things like PBS and, hence, Sesame Street. Instead, he adds Big Bird’s name to the conversation. A whole generation has grown up with Big Bird. Moms have planted kids in front of Sesame Street for several generations. They trust it. And the message that got carried was that Romney will make it go away.
Romney doesn’t get the impact of Sesame Street or of Big Bird. He certainly didn’t grow up watching it (neither did I; different generation) and maybe his kids didn’t, either. It’s not of real value to him and so he sees no problem if it disappears. Twitter, Facebook, and the blogosphere are suggesting that it matters to a lot of people.
To paraphrase Danny Ocean, we know Big Bird, Governor Romney, and we like him better.
MONDAY: Mindy Newell
The thing that’s interesting is that EVERY time PBS’ funding is threatened b someone in the government, Sesame Street is the image they use to represent the network. It’s an easy move, it’s clearly their most recognized show, but I’ll bet it cheeses the hell out of other folks that work there.
While I definitely still check in on the folks on Sesame Street when I can (their recent parodies have been brilliant – they just did Boardwalk Empire, for pete’s sake), I also remember PBS as where I got turned onto Monty Python and the world of Britcoms, not to mention Red Dwarf. Most old school Doctor Who fans got their first look at The Doctor on PBS. (It played on WOR here in New York before that).Just about every British show you ever fell in love with, up to and including that Upstairs Downstairs pastiche you’re all losing your fudge over..
They were saying before the debate that Mitt always writes a note to himself on his notepad to remind him that his Dad’s election hopes were lost with a poorly-chosen off-the-cuff remark. He should get a tattoo.
If you want to cut subsidies, the needed place to start are to the countries OUTSIDE this one. They are just going to have to understand that the cash cow, they’re so fond of getting their milk money from, is a little sick and needs some time to get better. So they’re just going to have to wait a little while for that solid gold bathroom set.
John,
I’m in Paris having a bite to eat and trying to catch up on my emails etc. I just read this and when I got to your last line I started laughing, something I RARELY do, out loud. You should looks I’m getting from the people at the cafe as I sit here continuing to laugh like a idiot while I type this.
The line should read -‘You SHOULD see the looks I’m getting’…clearly I’m laughing to hard to write clearly.
That and I went to public school.
Michael, the only thing that could have made me prouder if the last line made you shoot wine out your nose.
You almost got tequila- I don’t drink wine…yuk.
Ewww. John wants you to shoot the worm outta your nose! Talk about Ugly Americans! Jeez. At least put a beret on.
Once again the polls have proven that old adage NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE ABILITY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE TO BELIEVE BULLSHIT….or something like that.
Yes, Obama was somewhere else at the debate. (Check out the SNL skit on YouTube for a peek into Obama’s mind.) Who the hell knows what happened?
But Romney was insufferably rude and boorish, and unable to wipe that smirk–which the media interpreted as a smile, but, sorry, body language is body language, and visual clues are visual clues, and he WAS smirking, probably didn’t even realize he was doing it, probably thought he WAS smililng, but the body doesn’t always go along with what the mind is thinking, y’know?–and he just plain lied.
Yes, he lied. Period.
Think of this–if it had been Hillary Clinton acting like that during the debate, the media would be all over her for being rude, loud, obnoxious, overbearing, and lying.
Sexism, plain and simple.
Romney is a salesman. He revealed himself to be a salesman at the debate. Not the “Nordstrom = wonderful customer service” type of salesman.
No.
Romney was the car salesman pitching for the deal…but refusing to let you look under the hood.
America…look under the hood!!!!
Can we get a Carfax on Romney?
Btw, the Republican party has been jonesing to cut off funding to PBS since the day the organization was funded. Just as they have been jonesing to get rid of Social Security for the last 60 years, and Medicare, and Medicaid since the Johnson administration.