Feathers Fly After Romney Takes Aim at Big Bird

9 Comments

1. 

   The_Ohioan

   October 5, 2012 | 8:46 am

   You don’t mess with “Big Bird”. You just don’t.

2. 

   ordinarysparrow

   October 5, 2012 | 12:07 pm

   This was a small incident that spoke loud for me…..and own that i see it through skewed lens…. Romney coming on and taking a swing at this issue seemed toxic and more an indication of some kind of inner flaw….to go after PBS who was the host, seemed disrespectful beyond the level of politics….It seemed like a misuse of power that validates his tendency to bully…

   When i was a child my father would get the gun out on Christmas Eve… He would go out and shoot into the air, come back and say he had shot Santa Clause… I could not help but think of the younger children that watched the debate…Surely in there little hearts, here was a powerful man with the leading agenda to take down Big Bird…

   This is the same man that strapped the dog on the roof…

   Letter from a little 8 yr. old to Romney about Big Bird…

   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/04/mitt-romney-big-bird_n_1940400.html

3. 

   The_Ohioan

   October 5, 2012 | 12:31 pm

   Awww, isn’t that cute? Probably not authentic, but cute. Not your dad shooting Santa Clause, of course, that’s not cute; no wonder you are such a peace loving person!

   But, yes, you shouldn’t insult your host if you can help it. Maybe he could have held that gem for another moderator. Just looking at some TP sites, they seem to be so happy that Romney was “cleaning Obama’s clock” that they didn’t even grumble about the tax switch or praise the Big Bird firing. There are some funny comments on that HPo article.

4. 

   sheknows

   October 5, 2012 | 2:58 pm

   This is just a case of one puppet picking on another.

5. 

   Rambie

   October 5, 2012 | 3:28 pm

   Funny but cutting funding for PBS/NPR was the ONLY specific policy detail that Romney gave for the entire debate. Everything else he was was -being nice here- general policy ideas aka lies and distortions.

   I’m surprised he didn’t hurt his back as many time as he flip-flopped on stage.

6. 

   slamfu

   October 5, 2012 | 3:59 pm

   “conservatives regard public broadcasting as a Trojan horse for liberal values.”

   Seriously? Like what? Just because its more about educational stuff its liberal? This goes to the heart of one of my biggest beefs with today’s conservatives, they are really down on anything refined or educational. They regard NPR as liberal simply because of its tone, not its content. They think PBS is bad now too, is there no end to the absurdities?

7. 

   sheknows

   October 5, 2012 | 4:22 pm

   Yeah Slam, I guess freedom of speech will be the first thing to go if Rombot is elected. The Red Green show sure is liberal…oh thats right it’s Canadian. I guess any musical performance that doesn’t involve a washboard, or entertainment show that doesn’t deal with catching catfish by hand is too liberal for the masses. Good to know Romney will take care of that.

8. 

   rudi

   October 5, 2012 | 4:50 pm

   http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/15561901-421/no-debate-about-it-big-bird-is-small-potatoes-when-it-comes-to-federal-budget.html

   Let’s channel one of Big Bird’s colleagues, Count von Count, and do some math: The federal government gave $445 million this year to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes that money to PBS and, to a lesser degree, NPR member stations across the country.

   That $445 million works out to about 1/100 of 1 percent of the federal budget.

   That’s like me saying I’m going to lose weight by trimming my nails.

   The PBS budget is 100 M1A2 tanks.
   http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/09/romney-more-f-22s/
   Romney is in favor of resurrecting the F22 fighter, at a cost of billions. PBS budget is just TWO F22′s.
   

   That might seem like a lot, but Romney’s F-22 numbers do add up … in the abstract. The candidate has proposed spending 4 percent of U.S. gross domestic product on the military, which amounts to adding at least $100 billion a year to the Pentagon’s current $500-billion-plus budget. Romney’s defense plans involve adding another 100,000 active-duty troops, requiring some $25 billion annually; and an boosting Navy shipbuilding by six new ships a year, costing probably $8 billion combined annually. More Raptors could easily fit within the remaining $65 billion per year Romney said he would add to Pentagon coffers, with plenty of money left over to staff and operate the new F-22 squadrons.

   Big Bird is yelloe(Red), not red white and blue…

   I wonder if Mittens pups will be part of the 100,000 more troops to fight the evil Grand Fenwick?

9. 

   DORIAN DE WIND, Military Affairs Columnist

   October 5, 2012 | 5:12 pm

   Good cost comparisons, Rudi.

   Here’s another one. What we spend in two days on the Afghanistan War is more than what we spend on PBS in one year.