Hank Williams Jr. Comments: Criticisms Pour in After Obama Compared to Hitler [VIDEO]

The Hank Williams Jr. song, All My Rowdy Friends, which has opened Monday Night Football for 20 years wasn't part of the opening of Monday's game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Indianapolis Colts. ESPN decided to pull the open after the singer made controversial comments about President Barack Obama.

Williams, known to fans as Bocephus, compared Obama to Adolf Hitler on Fox News Channel's Fox and Friends show Monday morning. He thought that Speaker of the House John Boehner playing golf with President Obama back in June at the peak of the national debt crisis would be like Hitler playing golf with [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu ... In the shape this country is in?

Williams later tried to justify his words, releasing a statement. He didn't apologize, but instead said his comments were misunderstood.

My analogy was extreme -- but it was to make a point, Williams said. I was simply trying to explain how stupid it seemed to me -- how ludicrous that pairing was. They don't see eye-to-eye and never will. I have always respected the office of the president.

Williams is arguably more renowned for his celebrity status as a singer and songwriter rather than for his political stances. His comments stirred up some of the public, who alluded to that:

To me, empty headed celebrities spewing ignorance is as boring whether it's coming from the Left or Right. Can we move on now with some real news stories?

Hank Williams was hired to be the entertainment part of the show. He wasn't hired to give his opinions on other matters.

Why in the world was this guy invited on a news channel to talk politics in the first place? He sounds like somebody's half-drunk uninformed neighbor standing in the driveway with a can of beer in his hand spewing nonsense.

A YouTube user by the name of zennie62 even posted a video saying Williams was probably drunk when he did all this and now he probably wishes he kept his mouth shut.

Whether or not the open comes back is up in the air. However, what is a little more certain is that Williams, from Tennessee, has said he would run as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in 2012. And, he may already have issues to address in mind:

Working-class people are hurting and it doesn't seem like anybody cares, he said. When both sides are high-fiving it on the ninth hole when everybody else is without a job, it makes a whole lot of us angry. Something has to change. The policies have to change.