UPDATED: In response to the Sesame Street campaign ad released today by the Obama campaign, Sesame Workshop released the following statement:

“Sesame Workshop is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization and we do not endorse candidates or participate in political campaigns. We have approved no campaign ads, and as is our general practice, have requested that the ad be taken down.”

The Obama campaign is going hard against Mitt Romney for his call to cut funding to PBS, putting together a new television ad mocking the GOP Presidential candidate for going after political red meat, instead of addressing the deficit in a meaningful way.

RELATED: Political Cartoonists weigh in on the proposed cuts to PBS

The president has also been using the PBS angle in his stump speech, telling a rally in Denver last week, “Thank God someone is getting tough on Big Bird. We didn’t know Big Bird was driving the deficit.”

The Republican National Committee quickly hit back on the Sesame Street attack line, releasing a graphic showing Obama has mentioned Big Bird and Elmo 13 times since last week’s debate, without a single mention of Libya or his plans to fix the economy.

So is Big Bird becoming this election season’s Joe the Plumber?