The Obama campaign said today it was rejecting a request by Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that produces the Sesame Street program, to stop running an ad that features the show’s Big Bird character.

Sesame workshop had requested yesterday that the campaign drop the ad, which mocks Republican candidate Mitt Romney for saying he would cut funding to PBS.

The nonprofit said in a posting on its website:

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 both campaigns remove Sesame Street characters and trademarks from their campaign materials.

The Obama campaign responded this morning:

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Obama campaign senior adviser Robert Gibbs said on Wednesday that he was unaware of any efforts to take down the ad, saying that it spoke to broader issues regarding Mitt Romney’s policies.

“Mitt Romney took to the debate and said, ‘I’m going to get tough by ending Downton Abbey and go to war with Sesame Street, and let Wall Street off the hook as we go forward with financial reform,’” Gibbs said on NBC’s Today. “Look, we can’t have a president that does that.”

Liberal pundits have questioned the wisdom of running the ad. The Examiner looked at the public financing of Sesame Workshop and pointed out it doesn’t need the small amount of funding it gets from PBS to survive.