The Bird is the Word
COSTELLO: And just to bring you up to date once again. Moments ago the judge sentenced Jerry Sandusky to not less than 30 years in prison and not more than 60. The judge said he did not sentence him to hundreds of years behind bars because that just wouldn't seem right. Jerry Sandusky is around 68 years old. He will likely die in prison. These are pictures of Jerry Sandusky leaving the courtroom, getting into that police car, he'll be taken to the local jail where he's been being held and later transferred to a federal facility. Much more on this story in the hours to come on CNN. Let's talk about politics now, shall we? Now let's talk about the polls. But is it even worth talking about the polls? So you've heard all about the latest Pew poll and it has a huge post debate bump for Romney and not a single Republican is questioning its accuracy. But hold on, there are two different polls new this morning that show Romney is actually losing momentum. So what's the Obama campaign going to do about it? Unleash Big Bird.</s>AD NARRATOR: Bernie Madoff, Ken Lay, Dennis Kozlowski, criminals, glutens of greed -- and the evil genius who towered over them? One man has the guts to speak his name.</s>MITT ROMNEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Big Bird. Big Bird. Big Bird.</s>BIG BIRD: It's me, Big Bird.</s>AD NARRATOR: Big, yellow, a menace to our economy. Mitt Romney knows it's not Wall Street you have to worry about; it's "Sesame Street".</s>ROMNEY: I'm going to stop the subsidy to</s>PBS. AD NARRATOR: Mitt Romney, taking on our enemies no matter where they nest.</s>COSTELLO: There you have it. So let's talk about everything. Jason Johnson is a political science professor at Hiram College in Ohio and the chief political correspondent for Politics365. John Avlon is an Independent and CNN contributor and he does many, many more things, too long to list. Welcome to you both.</s>JASON JOHNSON, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR, HIRAM COLLEGE: Good morning.</s>COSTELLO: OK.</s>JOHN AVLON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Good to see you, Carol.</s>COSTELLO: So President Obama is arming himself with Big Bird and actually Nickelodeon, too, because apparently defying tradition Mitt Romney refused to answer question from the kids on Nickelodeon's kid pick the President and Mr. Obama did answer questions and that started the war of words. Obama's deputy national press secretary saying quote, "It's no surprise Mr. Romney chose to play hooky. Kids demand details," end quote. Jason, isn't this just silly?</s>JOHNSON: You know, it isn't silly when you're Mitt Romney because you need to make sure that after you get this post debate boost, that you work it as good as you can and the idea of him looking cold again, the idea of him looking distant again and not connecting with people is not good. Going after Big Bird, going after Elmo and ignoring a bunch of kids on Nickelodeon that is not the way to continue on the crest of your bump. So it is not good for Mitt Romney.</s>COSTELLO: Oh so come on but, John we saw Mitt Romney at an elementary school, he was shaking hands with the kids and he's telling very touching stories on the campaign trail about this 14-year-old for whom he gave the eulogy.</s>AVLON: Yes. Yes, but -- but continue that momentum. This is an unforced error. I mean if Nickelodeon has a series and asks you to talk to American school kids, you can't say I don't have time for them and still be on the charm offensive. We're trying to show people how human you are. Look, he's a fantastic father by all accounts. This is a unforced scheduling error, you always make time for America's school kids. If you don't, it's going to reflect badly on you.</s>COSTELLO: Really? Come on. Really?</s>JOHNSON: Yes.</s>AVLON: Yes, no I'm telling you.</s>COSTELLO: Because some people might say, oh my God, why take time out to answer a bunch of kids' questions.</s>JOHNSON: But the kids matter.</s>AVLON: Because they matter and their parents vote.</s>COSTELLO: OK. You guys know more about politics than I do. It's OK. Let's talk about the polls. There's being a war waged over the polls on Twitter. It goes something like this, my poll is better than your poll, na-na-na-na. So when taken all together, do national polls really matter, Jason?</s>JOHNSON: They do matter and they matter even when the Republicans were becoming sort of poll truthers just like they were job truthers last week. Look, the thing is this. Barack Obama was never going to win the presidential election by eight points. I always thought the original Pew poll was -- was a bit too positive Barack Obama. But legitimately look, Mitt Romney has done better after doing well in the debate and then that has receded a bit. And so the national polls matter but more importantly as a state polls when we look at Florida, when we look at Ohio, when we look at Virginia, if any of his success from last week's debate trickles into the states, then this could be a whole new race. But so far we haven't seen that in any of the swing states.</s>COSTELLO: But John, wouldn't you -- wouldn't you venture to guess that the closer we get to election time, the national polls, I'm not talking about the swing state polls, because I agree with you Jason, the national polls will show a race that's neck and neck?</s>AVLON: Sure absolutely. And remember, I mean Election Day is today in many states there's early voting. This year is different. The only poll that counts isn't just Election Day, it's what people do before. But -- but Jason is right to the extent that national polls are a broad barometer. What matters is the swing states. If you want to know what's going on, pay attention to them. And I love the way Carol that the professional partisans on both sides whenever they see a poll they don't like, they immediately start, you know, calling foul and going to the sample size. I mean, they are trying to spin their way out of what the polls are showing and nobody thinks that President Obama had a good debate last week. It's not a surprised that Mitt Romney is going to be making ground, pretty serious ground, in the past week.</s>COSTELLO: But there are still two more presidential polls to go.</s>AVLON: Yes.</s>COSTELLO: And you just don't know. That's why I'm saying why even look at the polls right now, Jason?</s>JOHNSON: Well, because it matters. The horse race coverage matters for partisans, right? Because the Democrats always like to be chicken little and say, oh, my God, the sky is falling, Obama got hammered in the debate last week. And Republicans like to always overestimate how friendly and how nice people actually think Mitt Romney are. So it matters to the people who are the partisans. It also matters for raising money. Look, Mitt Romney raised a lot of money after the debate last week because he finally demonstrated that hey, maybe this is a real race. So the polls do matter internally in the campaigns.</s>COSTELLO: OK so I've learned from this conversation that Big Bird could be the decider. John --</s>AVLON: Don't diss Big Bird. That's one of the big take away.</s>COSTELLO: I understand. I will never diss Big Bird. Jason Johnson and John Avlon, thanks so much.</s>JOHNSON: Thank you.</s>COSTELLO: A reminder for you Vice President Joe Biden and Congressman Paul Ryan preparing to debate each other this Thursday night. CNN's live coverage begins at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.