Mitt Romney Just Can't Live Down His Big Bird Bloodlust
[There was a video here]
Remember when Mitt Romney promised to kill Big Bird right before he lost to his scary, pro-Big Bird opponent? The Weather Channel remembers.
The weather-adjacent network has made unlikely political headlines twice in the week leading up to hotly-contested midterm elections. On Monday's edition of Sam Champion's talk show America's Morning Headquarters, Champion and long-time network meteorologist Carl Parker discussed Halloween costumes with each other in between segments. When Parker said that he planned on going as Big Bird, he added that he would "try to irritate Mitt Romney."
Parker's Big Bird comment was a reference to a painful moment in Romney's 2012 presidential campaign when the candidate promised to target PBS as a model for wasteful government spending that he would slash when America elected him president.
Obama's campaign pounced, spinning cuts to PBS into Romney vowing to "kill Big Bird" if elected. According to the Washington Post, the $445 million allotted to PBS in 2012 only accounted for about 0.012% of the year's entire $3.8 trillion federal budget. For someone who makes $30,000 a year, cutting 0.012% out of one's personal budget would equate to saving $3.60.*
The Obama campaign's messaging, combined with the fact that PBS' funding only accounts for a fraction of a drop in the bucket, turned one of Romney's campaign promises into more of a blunder than a serious policy point.
The network's other political headline this week comes from Weather Channel co-founder John Coleman making the rounds on conservative media in recent days claiming that climate change is nothing but a liberal hoax.
Many conservatives are using Coleman's credentials as the co-founder of The Weather Channel to bolster his claims, but the very company he helped to create forcefully disagrees with his views. In a public statement issued back in November 2007, The Weather Channel unequivocally stated that climate change is real.
[Video via The Weather Channel | h/t Raw Story | *edited for clarity]
