Big Bird to Mitt Romney -- Thanks for the Shoutout ... Even Though You Want Me Dead

Big Bird and the rest of the fine people at Sesame Street don't give two craps about Mitt Romney's politics -- but they're PUMPED he gave BB a shoutout during last night's Presidential debate ... despite the whole "Death to PBS" thing.

Sesame Street released a statement this morning following Romney's Big Bird reference, saying, "Sesame Workshop is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, educational organization. We do not comment on campaigns, but we're happy we can all agree that everyone likes Big Bird."

In case you missed the debate last night, Romney mentioned Big Bird in reference to cutting PBS funding in order to save government money.

Romney said, "I'm going to stop the subsidy to PBS ... I like PBS. I love Big Bird. But I'm not going to keep spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for it."

A rep for Sesame Street -- which has been a partner of PBS for 43 years -- says the show relies on PBS to distribute its commercial-free programming to children. In other words, no PBS ... no Sesame Street.

The CEO of PBS Paula Kerger told CNN this morning, "With the enormous problems facing the country, the fact that we are the focus is unbelievable to me. We are America’s biggest classroom, we touch children across the country in every home."