In the wake of a strong debate performance, Republican nominee Mitt Romney is racking up a number of surprise endorsements. Here are our five favorites.
1. Lindsay Lohan
The Mean Girls star and all-around party girl recently announced that she was voting for Romney. "I just think employment is really important now," Lohan said to noted news network E!. "So, as of now, Mitt Romney. As of now." Business Insider thinks this could be a key moment for the former governor’s resurgent campaign:
Lohan is a low information voter convinced that (a) employment is really important, (b) thinks that employment is not being sufficiently handled by the White House right now and (c) thinks that Mitt Romney is better equipped to handle employment.
That arguably logical sequence is all that it takes for a low-information voter to support Mitt Romney. The thing is, there are millions of voters like her. That should terrify the Obama campaign.
2. Buzz Bissinger
Buzz Bissinger—the self-described lifelong Democrat who wrote Friday Night Lights—recently endorsed Romney after Obama’s disastrous first debate. Writing in the Daily Beast, Bissinger minced no words:
I have never seen a performance worse than Obama’s, distracted, his head dipped into the podium as if avoiding the smell of something rotten, acting above the very idea that a debate does provide a pivotal referendum on his first term as it has for all incumbent presidents, whipsawed by the legion of usual advisers telling him to play defense when his own intuition should have told him that he needed to go on the offensive as Romney slapped him around.
But there was more than the entitlement of entitlement. He struck me as burnt out, tired of selling his message although he has always been terrible at selling his message when it veers from idealism into the practical.
3. Stacey Dash
The African-American star of the surprise 1995 hit film Clueless recently came out in full-throated support for Mitt Romney, tweeting "Vote for Romney. The only choice for your future." The backlash for daring to voice her support for the Republican was swift and ugly: Among other slurs, she was called an "Oreo" and an "UNCLE TOM."
4. Jenna Jameson
The former porn queenpin endorsed Romney in August from the backroom of a San Francisco gentlemen’s club:
"I'm very looking forward to a Republican being back in office," Jameson said while sipping champagne in a VIP room at Gold Club in the city's South of Market neighborhood. "When you're rich, you want a Republican in office."
Like Bissinger, Jameson was blown away by Romney’s prowess on the debate stage:
Frothing! RT Is anyone else as excited about the Ryan / Biden debates??It will be a bloodbath..worse than last night..#obamafail
— Jenna Jameson (@jennajameson) October 5, 2012
5. Shyne
The rapper Shyne—who was born in Belize and deported from the United States following he and P. Diddy’s alleged involvement in a 1999 nightclub shooting—recently announced his support for Romney and his frustration with the president’s unwillingness to help him return to the United States:
Shyne had a lot to get off his mind this week, including his feelings on Barack Obama, admitting that if he was able to vote in the presidential election he wouldn't be supporting the Democratic candidate.
"I'd vote for Romney," Shyne told MTV News during a phone interview on Monday before rapping Kanye West's now infamous line from "To the World." "Even though Mitt Romney don't pay no tax, Mitt Romney don't pay no tax."
It is unclear if Shyne can legally vote in the United States.