The Washington Independent » daddy yankee

McCain Announces a Game-Changing Endorsement

Matthew DeLong — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:40:39 +0000

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — Shortly before the final presidential debate here at Hofstra University, the McCain campaign announced a potentially race-altering endorsement that could be just what the doctor ordered to revive Sen. John McCain’s beleaguered bid for the White House.

I don’t think this is a joke:

CENTENNIAL, Colo. — Today the McCain-Palin campaign announced the endorsement of Eduardo Verastegui, one of today’s fastest rising Latino stars. Best known for his starring roles in the 2006 movie “Bella” and other Mexican soap operas, Verastegui was voted by People en Espaol [sic] as one of the “50 Most Beautiful People” in the world. He has made appearances in the popular TV series, “Charmed,” as Mr. Right, and in Jennifer Lopez’s “Ain’t It Funny” video and her new perfume commercials.

First Daddy Yankee, and now Verastegui.

Sen. Barack Obama had better not be taking the Latino vote for granted.

McCain’s Poetry Written In ‘Gasolina’

Spencer Ackerman — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:49:44 +0000

Can I add one thing to DeLong’s Daddy Yankee post? When I went to Iraqi Kurdistan in January 2006, Daddy Yankee’s porny hit “Gasolina” was, for some inexplicable reason, ubiquitous. Somehow Daddy Yankee was the sound of the Erbil streets. I wrote about it for Open Democracy:

The gas-hustlers have a comfort, though – chilly as it may be in the face of a security crackdown. Wafting through the airwaves and onto the streets of Erbil is an unlikely palliative speaking directly to the Kurdish imagination in this current moment of netherworldly nationhood: reggaetón. At precisely the right moment of national confusion, this hybrid confection of Jamaican dancehall reggae and Latin lyrical thuggishness is musing to northern Iraq about the liberating possibilities of gasolina. In a bizarre but tangible sense, the peshmergas’ status as Erbil street bosses has competition from a San Juan rapper named Daddy Yankee.

Yeah, like I can explain that.