Obama campaign deploys Big Bird in new ad

Associated Press

The Associated Press

Updated: Oct 9, 2012 6:57 AM

NEW YORK (AP) — President Barack Obama's campaign is deploying Big Bird in a new TV ad chiding Mitt Romney for saying he will end federal funding for public broadcasting.

The new, satirical ad shows images of convicted financiers including Bernie Madoff and Enron's Ken Lay, and suggests Romney thinks Big Bird is behind their crimes.

The Republican hopeful said in last week's debate that he would stop subsidies to PBS as a way to cut federal spending, even though he likes Big Bird. Obama's ad pokes fun at that assertion, saying Mitt Romney "knows it isn't Wall Street you need to worry about, it's Sesame Street."

Republicans say the ad shows that Obama is focusing on inconsequential matters rather than urgent issues like the economy and the Middle East.

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