Poor Big Bird.
Through no fault of his own, he becomes the punching bag of the Republican party during last night's presidential debate, which by all counts have suggested provided a big "W" in the Romney column.
I grew up with Big Bird. I know Big Bird well. Big Bird is a friend of mine.
Please don't kill Big Bird.
If it weren't for Big Bird, I might never have learned to read. Which means I might also have never learned to write.
Which means I couldn't bring you these blog posts on such a regular basis.
I guess I could draw stick figures and post them here, but I don't think they would be nearly as interesting.
What interested me about the debate, beyond the substance (sic? was there any substance, or just an amalgamation of statistics thrown about?), was the social media response.
Of course, on Twitter, the debate Twitterstream flew by so quickly, I was having flashbacks to the Arab Spring.
In fact, according to Beth Fouhy, writing for the Huffington Post, Twitter announced after the debate that it had been the most tweeted event in U.S. political history.
Heaven help us.
There were apparently 11.1 million Tweets -- this brings it in behind the most recent Grammy Awards, MTV's Video Music Awards, and the Super Bowl.
I'll leave aside for the moment the fact that our first and probably most important presidential debate in years trails the MTV Video Music Awards in terms of Tweetability. Along that road lies the fall of empires and such.
What was most troubling to me was that comments from the social media echo chamber seemed to be pretty much that, an echo.
Mind you, I don't expect an Alexis de Tocqueville treatise on democracy from my social media compadres, but an original, insightful thought or comment about the substance of the debate might be good every once in a while.
But no. We got @FiredBigBird (Update: We had @FiredBigBird. His Twitter account has apparently been suspended. Poor Big Bird can't get a break!)
Of which there are now were
over 27,000 followers. I am not ashamed to admit this fact, because it's my job to keep up with such social media trends.
What'syour excuse???
I've been on Twitter since 2007. I was even part of that original crowd at SXSW Interactive using Twitter that first year to plan lunch and escape boring conference sessions. I had no clue someday I'd be following Big Bird on Twitter concerned for his future employment!
Yeah, I'm a little jealous. I've been laboring in the Twitter trenches for years, and I've eked out just over 2,000 followers on some serious and substantive issues concerning our planet, technology, business, politics, and, yes, golf!
So, like our Republican candidate, I've decided to come out swinging. Enough of this Turbo Twitter Travesty.
I'm about to get bold.
I'm going big and I'm going wide.
I'm going to take on the visage of one of the Sesame Street characters, because that's clearly the only way anyone can get any real attention in this joint.
So I'm posting a poll below, and you, the audience, get to vote for the Sesame Street character that best personifies me "Turboness."
Vote early, and vote often. If it works for America, by God, it can work for my blog!
Cast your vote on Todd's blog.
As for Sesame Street's funding options... well, Big Bird has to earn his way just like the rest of us.
If he can't make it on TV, there's always Broadway, or off-Broadway... or, well, I'm sure there's a football team somewhere in America that would take him on as their mascot.
Just don't ask him to Tweet too often...those velvet Big Bird hands don't do so well on the iPhone keyboard.
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