Romney: 47% remark 'wrong'

Filmmaker and Democrat supporter Michael Moore tweeted:

Two statistics from Twitter Government - @gov:

• Tonight's debate was the most tweeted about event in US political history, topping the numbers from the RNC and DNC.
• 17,000 Tweets per minute for "Big Bird" and 10,000 Tweets per minute for "PBS".

A parody account of Sesame Street's Big Bird has been created after Mitt Romney said he would stop the subsidy to PBS.

He said: "I'm sorry Jim. I'm gonna stop the subsidy to PBS. I'm gonna stop other things. I like PBS, I like Big Bird, I actually like you too."

@FiredBigBird replied:

The White House press pack accidentally got into Mitt Romney's press van after tonight's debate. They were only alerted when the driver said: "I think Romney did real good".

Big Bird is tonight igniting the Twitterverse after Mitt Romney talked about cutting funding to certain items in the budget, including cuts to PBS, which employs debate moderator Jim Lehrer and which airs Sesame Street in the Unites States.

"I'm sorry Jim. I'm gonna stop the subsidy to PBS. I'm gonna stop other things," Romney said. "I like PBS, I like Big Bird, I actually like you too."

Immediately someone created a @FiredBigBird account, which instantly leapt into four figures in numbers of followers.

Guardian US editor Janine Gibson, BuzzFeed Politics Andrew Kaczynski and The Hotline's editor Reid Wilson tweeted:

The first televised debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney has finished.

Again and again Romney is quickest off the mark, sounding and looking assured. Obama's performance is underwhelming and stuttering.