Oct 9, 2012 No Comments ›› Pat Dollard
Excerpted from POLITICKER: Team Romney has decried Democrats’ repeated mentions of Big Bird since Mitt Romney brought up the beloved muppet while declaring his intention to end the federal subsidy for PBS during last week’s presidential debate, but the Obama campaign shows no sign that they intend to stop invoking Sesame Street any time soon. In fact, at an Obama rally at Ohio State University this afternoon, rapper will.i.am performed a rendition of the theme song of the popular children’s television show to rile up the president’s supporters.
According to Politico reporter Reid Epstein, who was on the scene at the Ohio State rally, will.i.am’s Sesame Street stylings may not have had the desired effect.
“Much, much more enthusiasm when @iamwill plays Journey than for the Sesame Street theme song,” Mr. Epstein wrote on Twitter.
Based on his other tweets from the event, Mr. Epstein clearly wasn’t impressed with will.i.am’s performance.
“So what is will.i.am ’s talent again?” he asked.
will.i.am also made music for the president during the 2008 election. In February of that year he released a song, “Yes We Can,” with lyrics based on one of Mr. Obama’s campaign speeches. That song seems to have gone over much better than his performance today. The star-studded “Yes We Can” video, which featured appearances from a slew of celebrities including; Scarlett Johansson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Nick Cannon and John Legend went on to be seen by more than 24 million people on YouTube.
This morning, the Obama campaign released a web video mocking Mr. Romney for threatening to cut funding to PBS and take Big Bird off the air. Sesame Workshop, the foundation that creates the kids’ show, responded with a two-sentence statement asking the Obama to remove the ad on the grounds they are “a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization” that doesn’t “endorse candidates or participate in political campaigns.”
