Ah,well, now everybody's heard about the Bird

Big Bird as the takeaway from Wednesday's debate has been a predictable boon for political cartoonists. Facebook Photoshoppers were putting gags up while the debate was still in progress, and the pros weren't far behind them.

Nick Anderson riffs on one element, which is the disparity between the goal of hunting down bin Laden and the promise to cut funding for a beloved children's TV program.

Both are primarily symbolic, given that killing bin Laden doesn't seem to have shifted much of anything in the war on terror, and that cutting funding to public broadcasting wouldn't impact either the deficit or Sesame Street, though it would damage the ability of kids in rural communities to watch the program.

But debates are for symbols, not substance, and John Cole captures the Big Bird factor perfectly in this Norman Rockwell spoof:

It's interesting to note, by the way, that the Rockwell painting is not called "Thanksgiving," though that is how people tend to think of it.

It's called "Freedom from Want" and is one of his inspiring and deeply patriotic "Four Freedoms" series, which only makes Cole's spoof that much more relevant.

Rockwell's series was published by the Saturday Evening Post in 1943 and adopted as part of the War Bonds (!) drive, but Roosevelt had defined those freedoms in his 1941 State of the Union message, nearly a year before we entered the war:

In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way -- everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want -- which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -- everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear -- which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor-- anywhere in the world.

That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation.

Of course, Roosevelt is an archvillain in the radical right's rogues' gallery, and, just as Romney smiled and praised Big Bird while promising to cut him off, so, too, it wouldn't be hard to get polite, smiling praise for the Four Freedoms from those who would endeavour to undermine them.

I've often told of the new publisher at a paper where I worked who, at the cake-and-soda party in the break room at which he was introduced, came over to me, shook my hand, smiled and told me how much he supported educational programs.

We all like educational programs.

So I thanked him and said to myself, "Oh, shit ..." and, sure enough, my program began to be cut and I began to be re-assigned to "do more with less." But the smile of the crocodile had been sufficient warning and I already had my resume in wide circulation. 

Romney won Wednesday's debate. Everyone says so, and his supporters are dancing like a young defensive player who just made a tackle in the third quarter of a game in which his team is behind. Older players point to the scoreboard but the fans go nuts. 

Given that the fans in this game get to determine the winner, it's not insignificant.

One of the things that went in Romney's favor was that the topic was economics, which means everyone's eyes rolled back five minutes into it and the entire thing came down to style.

Another was that the substitute teacher lost control of the class right from the bell. Not only did this mean no moderator's pressure on either candidate to clarify his own remarks or respond specifically to his opponent's, but the lack of time limits allowed Obama to indulge his fatal, professorial tendency to drone and drift.

So, the zeitgeist being what it is in American elections, 90 minutes of economic discussion came down to Big Bird.

It will be interesting to see if the "Romney Won!" exultation will sway people throughout the remaining weeks, or if their previous rejection of his intentions to slash away at the Four Freedoms will regain traction.

Because we all like the Four Freedoms.

  

Comments

[Mat]

The debate may be a Pyrrhic Victory for Romney. The debate was a VERY large event for Romney and many of the things he said about all subjects were nationally viewed. Unlike some of the lesser known things Romney has said, his debate speech is very well recognized.

However, the big problem I see is that many of the things that Romney has said at the debate don't jive with the things that Romney has said in the past. As has been mentioned NUMEROUS times, especially during the Repulbican nomination process, Romney's views seem to change quite frequently, based on the current tides of popular opinion.

Romney's campaign has already corrected some of the things he said during the debate. Political commentators and bloggers are already comparing and contrasting things Romney said at the debate and what he has said only a few months prior. So, despite his ability to steamroll everyone and provide comforting promises, he may be in more trouble than merely sticking to his guns, because he will have to go through some rather convoluted mental gymnastics to reconcile his debate opinions with his campaign opinions.

In my opinion, I think that Big Bird is just the easiest point to latch on to. It's not as though the debate was really filled with substance. The vast majority of the debate seemed to rely on the notion that merely saying something is true makes it true (e.g. lower taxes = everything is better). In that regard, it reminds me of Bush's "Axis of Evil" speech, where the vast majority of what Bush said was mostly irrelevant, but he made sure to beat his chest and rattle his saber when it came to "evil" countries.

As an aside, I wonder if Jim Lehrer was annoyed with Romney's discussion of cutting funding from PBS, where his NewsHour show has been broadcast for 30+ years.