“I just feel right now that the party is over, the smoke has cleared.” So says a former Barack Obama supporter about the realities of the last four years finally hitting home, in Citizens United Productions’ film ‘The Hope and The Change.’ Last Wednesday night, about 70 million Americans saw through the hope and the change, just like our film’s interview subjects. The president’s failures and incompetence were on full display to the entire country at the presidential debate in Denver.
Nate Beeler / Columbus Dispatch (click to view more cartoons by Beeler)
President Obama is so out of touch that aides say he walked out of the debate thinking he had won. In fact, it was the biggest shellacking Gallup has ever seen – their polling showed people watching the debate thought Mitt Romney won 72-20 percent. Other than Obama, I’m not sure who else makes up that 20 percent – even his campaign staff knew he lost and they’re still panicking.
After Romney’s resounding victory at the debate, the Obama campaign unveiled a brand new message: Save Big Bird! It doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as “hope” and “change,” but it’s just as hollow. When your main line of attack as a sitting president is based on a children’s character, you know you are losing.
As Obama himself said at the Democrat National Convention in 2008:
“If you don’t have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from. You make a big election about small things.”
Can you get any smaller (figuratively) than Big Bird as a campaign issue? As bad as the War on Women, the cancer smear, and Seamus the dog were as pathetic, small-minded attacks, this one takes the cake. It is particularly galling when real life or death issues are at play, like the September 11, 2012 terrorist attacks, “Fast and Furious,” and the millions struggling to survive under the Obama Economy. President Obama is shirking these big issues because he and his administration caused or at least failed to prevent them.
Another point that is missed about the Big Bird controversy is that Romney spoke about defunding PBS as a lighthearted example of how he would cut programs to reduce the debt. He said he would ask, “Is the program so critical it’s worth borrowing money from China to pay for it?” Sorry, Big Bird, but PBS’s Sesame Street does not pass that test.
Our crushing $16 trillion national debt is an economic disaster. Countries like China own enormous amounts of our debt and if they sell it off they can wield great power over America. Now more than ever, America needs a Commander-in-Chief who will act boldly to solve our financial crisis, but President Obama instead weakly hides behind Big Bird.
No doubt after President Obama’s horrendous debate performance, many people inclined to support him are now questioning their choice. These are the very people that ‘The Hope and The Change’ seeks to reach. Seeing other former Obama supporters just like them express their doubt and disappointment will resonate.
Now anyone with an internet connection can watch ‘The Hope and The Change’ on Hulu.com. Having ‘The Hope and The Change’ available online will only bring more people into the conversation and allow a younger demographic to view this very important film as we enter the final stretch of the presidential campaign. Hopefully we can get people talking about big ideas again, instead of Big Bird.
