Transcript of Oct. 3 Debate, Plus Big Bird and Cookie Monster

Anyone who's interested can of course watch the Oct. 3 debate online.  Here it is, for example:

Madame L has also found the whole transcript of the debate, for those of her Dear and Gentle Readers who would like to read, search for particular words or phrases, and so on. 

Note for Dear Reader Jeff: Madame L believes that Mitt Romney is going to be assailed by people who point out that cutting funding for Sesame Street et al. is a ridiculous solution to the debt problem, as it would cut the federal deficit by about 1/100th. 

Besides, only about 12% of PBS's budget comes from the federal government. Madame L thinks this "zinger" Romney's campaign folks fed him was a big mistake.

Just for you, Jeff, here's your hero singing your favorite song:

 

Madame L admires all those clever Websters (ha ha, get it, Dear Readers? Web-sters!) who responded appropriately to the Big Bird zinger. For example, from ABC News: 

   "According to Twitter data, the words “Big Bird” were tweeted 17,000 times per minute and “PBS,” the channel that airs “Sesame Street,” peaked at 10,000 tweets per minute.”Big Bird” was also the fourth highest-rising search term on Google.

   "Romney’s comment sparked the hashtag #SaveBigBird, which was trending worldwide, and spawned at least three pro-Big Bird Twitter handles, @BigBird, @BigBirdRomney and @FiredBigBird.

   "The @BigBird handle, which sent out comments such as, “I guess I’m the 47%…” and, “Even Ernie is mad! :(“, had nearly 14,000 followers one hour after the debate ended.

   "The @FiredBigBird went virtually viral, garnering 2,000 followers in two minutes. One hour after the debate, 16,000 people were following the account.

   "The @BigBirdRomney account, which had about 7,000 followers an hour after the debate, fired off nearly 50 tweets during the debate."

And here's Big Bird's alphabet song:

Viva Sesame Street!