Mitt Romney has been taking fire for his embrace of Ted Nugent. The ’70s rocker who sang “Cat Scratch Fever” and “Yank Me, Crank Me,” endorsed Romney in March. But this weekend at the NRA convention, Nugent made his latest over-the-top comments, saying the “vile,” “evil,” and “America-hating” Obama administration is “wiping its ass with the Constitution.” He added for good measure, that “I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year” if Obama wins a second term. Outrage ensued as the DNC and others called on Mitt to repudiate Ted.
With nearly seven months before voters decide, here are Romney’s celebrity presidential endorsers most likely to spark the next kerfuffle in the 24-hour news cycle:
GENE SIMMONS:The Kiss bassist who says he’s slept with more than 4,600 women is another rocker backing Romney, who says he’s been with one—his wife, Ann—and has made his monogamy a centerpiece of his campaign.
KID ROCK:Kid Rock may be a proud Mitt Romney supporter, but he seems to undermine Mitt Romney’s message about restoring America’s greatness. Rock has had repeated run-ins with the law, including a late-night brawl at a Waffle House. In the family-values sphere, Rock also made a sex tape with Creed lead singer Scott Stapp. Still, while the late-’90s rock-rap trend that Kid Rock helped pioneer is not exactly the United States’ proudest cultural export, there could be certain foreign-policy benefits for a Romney administration. As the ex-husband of Pamela Anderson, he possesses insights into wooing her that would be greatly valued by at least one key official of the oil-rich state of Kazakhstan.
HERMAN CAIN:Herman Cain has thrown his support behind Mitt Romney. However, Romney may not want the former GOP frontrunner’s support. Cain has a history of sexual-harassment allegations, including one from Sharon Bialek, who claimed Cain offered to give her a job in exchange for sex, that forced him to withdraw from the Republican primary. In the midst of the so-called war on women, embracing Herman Cain may be the equivalent of opening up a whole new front against female voters for Romney.
DONALD TRUMP:Donald Trump threw a giant fundraiser/birthday party for Ann Romney on Tuesday that featured a giant cake. But the self-proclaimed billionaire, who flirted with a presidential run of his own, has a long record of business busts and political controversies—not least of them his push last year to revive the “birther” myth about Barack Obama. Romney may want to disassociate himself from the Donald, lest voters in November echo The Apprentice’s catchphrase and tell him “you’re fired.”
