Talk Elections

I freely admit that I largely live in a world that's a mix of college's/reddit's liberal echo chamber and this esoteric clan of the hyper-attentive, so I know nothing of the real world's perception, basically. That said, all I have heard, and about a million times, about the debate is regarding Romney's threat to slash funding to PBS. Has this storyline really taken over? If so, could it mitigate Obama's losses from the debate? It's fascinating to watch these sorts of things unfold the way they do...!

There were a couple weird things done by Romney that could have hurt him if Obama hadn't done so poorly. This is definitely the big one. He wants to fire big bird and told an old guy to his face he would fire him. Surely a winning strategy for getting the mom vote or the 50-65 vote. Also the you don't have to listen of you are over 60 part was pretty odd...if he makes gaffes like this again it will catch up with him

Actually, I wouldn't care if they let NPR go, but DON'T end PBS or AMTRAK! I use both of them... AMTRAK is absolutely essential for me to continue my career because it's the only way I can really travel any long distance.

But yeah, Obama was so lazy. I wish he'd taken the offensive posture away from Romney. Here's hoping in the next one that he will.

Obama's not a fighter. As it has been painfully obviously from the last 4 years, he wants to be a compromising supersenator who gets consensus from the Republicans, even though they are determined to not.  I bet he wishes he could have a beer summit with Lehrer and Romney where they quietly work out their differences. But of course Romney isn't interested in that.

My God, I hadn't even thought of that. I'll admit I've been avoiding the 2012 board for most of the past 24 hours, but I haven't heard much chatter about this element of the PBS angle. This could be a death knell if applied properly.

Cutting funding to PBS to reduce the deficit is like deleting a few .txt files from your 500Gb hard drive to save space.

Not to mention that a lot of the actual funding for public broadcasting comes from "viewers like you," the richer of whom might be less inclined to give to charity thanks to Romney's new idea of capping deductions at $17 000.

Gotta start somewhere. PBS is a good place to start. Sesame Street - if it is profitable will find a home on another network.

Romney should make this argument to suburban moms.

In the real world, you cannot run perpetual trillion dollar deficits. In order to get the deficit in shape, you need to start somewhere. Romney will try his damnedest to get things under control. Clearly Obama lives in a fantasy world where we can borrow from China indefinitely (Obama is not a numbers guy, so of course he cannot wrap his head around the situation). They're going to stop borrowing the minute Obama wins re-election if that happens.

PBS gets a lot of their funding from donations and will continue to do so.

Donations will ensure PBS continues. "Brought to you by viewers like you." Haven't you guys ever watched PBS?

Guys, believe me, Romney does not want to have this debate about laying off Big Bird.

America wants to hear about jobs and getting the deficit in shape, not about figments of the Obama campaign's imagination. Romney is not the guy that the Obama campaign has imagined him to be. People realize this now, so the Obama campaign would be wise to drop their nonsense and talk like civilized adults in this issues-dominated eleciton.

Presumably Romney's new cap on deductions would have a depressive effect on charitable giving, no?

Romney said if something is not worth borrowing money from China for, he will not do it. PBS can manage with donations. We cannot afford to leverage ourselves to the hilt so that China can destroy our currency in five or six years (make no mistake about it: That is China's end game; you didn't really think they're lending us trillions of dollars out of the goodness of their hearts, did you?)

Big Bird is not the issue.

People are motivated by helping others with their donations. Do you have such little faith in your fellow countrymen?

Romney brought up Big Bird in the debate. He introduced him. It was a big unforced error on his part. Any Republican who remembers 1995 winced when he said that.

You do know the % of foreign owned debt owned by China is decreasing. It's down to about 25%. Japan suprisingly is the next biggest holder with 20%. Suprisingly the same people who tried to get the USA worried about Japan in the 1980's are scaremongering again but this time about China.

China currently has US reserves in the trillions. If they dumped it on the ForEx today, they'd destroy our currency and therefore our economy.

Maybe some folks like being dominated by others, but I prefer seeing America on top.

This would also destroy their own economy.  Get your head out of your ass.

Today? Yes. In 5-10 years? No.

The Chinese are thinking long-term, unlike Obama and Co.

If, at any point, our economy collapses, China will be screwed.

Get your head out of your ass.

see my signature

I'm still seeing it all over twitter.

If either the US or Chinese economies looked like they were in trouble, the net effect would be to increase demand for dollars.

China has about $2 trillion in dollar-denominated reserves, which is a drop in the bucket compared to the size of the world currency market. $5 trillion are traded every day on the forex market. The total forex dollar-denominated foreign reserves of the dollar reserve system are about $7 trillion. The entire $7 trillion, including China's share, is the result of US current account deficits, and also contributes to those same deficits. To reduce America's forex vulnerability, and physical vulnerability in general (to China but also to all countries), the US would have to depreciate the dollar until our current account came into balance, and maintain a policy of current account balance.

If China dumped $3-4 trillion on the ForEx on a single day in 5-10 years, when they can do it without being reliant upon exports to us and decide to signal they have no confidence in our ability to honor our debt obligations, the greenback would look like the ruble did in 1998.

The Chinese are not hoarding and building up these massive reserves because they love America, and certainly not because they love Big Bird. They will flip us the bird when the moment is right. They want to be the nation that dethroned the superpower. They want to be the wave of the future.

But let's talk about Big Bird and gay marriage for Bert and Ernie, right?

Romney brought up Big Bird, Politico. Evidently his firing Big Bird has been an applause line for him among friendly audiences for months.

The Chinese are hoarding dollars and American debt because it is the safest currency/debt in the world. Despite all the cynical fear mongering from Republicans, interest rates and inflation are crazy low.

"I want to fire big bird" is the 2012 debate line that will go down in history.

One, "I love Big Bird" is what he said. Two, only 15% of PBS' budget comes from federal subisides. If we cannot even cut PBS subsidies, if even that is considered untouchable, then we might as well just sign over everything to China on November 7 because this country is finished in that case.

Hey, liberals, if Obama wins then maybe PBS can help you learn Mandarin next year?

Stop.

This is Hannity and Rush tier garbage.  You're all supposed to be the sane, reasoned side in this election.

But this is the 2012 board. We aren't supposed to be sane or rational.

Who the F still watches Sesame Street. I've never watched it and I've never met any kid in today's world who watches it.

You are making the wrong assumptions Politico, cutting should not be on the table, we need to print & spend money money to cut the deficit if that's what you are worried about. How else are we going to break up the fat cats?

Pretty much every person I know in my age bracket watched Sesame Street.. as well as many older and younger...

It's the "I can see Russia from my house" moment of the election. All we need is someone on SNL to say it and it'll become true.

See, liberals can do away with facts, too!

Asks the hispanic mom next door

"would you rather that the government pay for your food stamps, or big bird."

"WTF is Big Bird?"

If she's a Mexican mom, she'll know Plaza Sésamo.  It's as popular as Sesame Street is among the anglophone crowd.  I bought my son a book called "Los insectos con Archibaldo" in Mexico so he could learn some Spanish.  (Archibaldo is what they call Grover, and Archibaldo has that same scratchy weird voice as Grover, except that he speaks Spanish.)  The Big Bird character is actually green in the Mexican version, with some colorful feathers on his head and he is called Montoya, but, at least in Mexico, they know that in the Yankee version his is yellow and called Big Bird.  Cookie Monster is called Lucas, Kermit is called René, the gay lovers Bert and Ernie are called Beto y Enrique, and Elmo, of course, is called Elmo, but his girlfriend Zoe is called Lola in the Spanish version.


Montoya:

()

WTF is this? lol

I prefer the older Sesame Street from the 80s and early 90s, as of now its so politically correct, no normal kid wants to watch it anymore.

She'll want Big Bird to pay for her food stamps.

I love this. Sesame Street is like Saturday night live. People always think it was best when they first saw it

Also this is a show for 4 year olds. So I'm not sure what you mean by "normal kid"  I think most kids still watch because it's good TV and it's made for them.

I'll take that back, every kid wants to watch Sesame Street.

True.  My son is seven and he thinks its so stoopid.  Won't watch it now.  I think at some point you outgrow that stuff.  He still likes Curious George, though.

Sesame was politically correct in 1972, by the way, and it was one of the few shows that really was, back then, but that didn't make it any less entertaining for the four-year-old.  I know I liked it, and so did most of my chums.  Electric Company was very politically correct as well.  The phrase "politically correct" hadn't occurred to anyone yet.  That phrase would make its debut in the late 80s, but certainly those two shows were very PC even in their infancy.  

Electric Company, incidentally, has become very, very weird.  It has evolved more than Sesame Street in the past 40 years.  And not in a good way.  For the uninitiated, here's what Electric Company was like in 1972:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFYMijdQ_sA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=3kuKcX8QrOM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEBxXNuEAjQ


For the over 40 crowd:  yes, Jennifer of the Jungle is the same chick from the Shake and Bake commercial.  I was so hot for her when I was four years old.  

Oh man, you really don't understand numbers or economics, do you Politico? 

Yeah, back in the early 70's when I was in the target audience, The Electric Company was way better than Sesame Street ever was.  Of course how could it not be better with Morgan Freeman in the cast?  Unfortunately, while it was a way better show, it wasn't something with obvious merchandizing tie-ins.

Not PBS, but You Can't Do That on Television FTW

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zApPYA9Fbro

Exactly what can China do to us if they want their money back?  If they stop trading with us, they lose as much if not more than we do.  If they are crazy enough to try military action, we have thousands of hydrogen bombs.

Talking of that sort of children's telly, how about Pipkins? I worry for the psychological wellbeing of anyone of watched that as a child, I really do...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWf4ENrsl2I

"If she's a Mexican mom, she'll know Plaza Sésamo."

Nope, she's never heard of him, sorry. :) So we have two votes. Just asked the white mom today on the other side. She thinks Big Bird deserves to make more money by going private. :)

In the informal Kenobi survey it's 3-0.

The information we have all been waiting for!

Love the new sig image, btw, especially Bert and whatever-it's-called at bottom left.