Breaking News: John McCain drops Palin, names Daddy Yankee as his new VP pick!

Maverick Republican presidential candidate John McCain certainly knows how to pick 'em! If you've been hiding under a rock (or watching CNN) you probably have just begun to hear the news just now.

The latest (and please try not to let your brain explode): Extreme right-wing Alaska governor Sarah Palin (right), who McCain announced as his running mate on Friday, has since been linked to the following:

• An ethics investigation for alleged misuse of her powers as a governor
• Trying to keep her 17 year-old daughter's out-of-wedlock pregnancy under wraps, which, of course, doesn't fit with the 'abstinence only' and 'wholesome family values' memes that have been used by Republicans over and over again
  
• And, most chillingly, "painted the current war in Iraq as a messianic affair in which the United States could act out the will of the Lord" as The Huffington Post unveiled
  
• Oh, and that is tied to her emerging Reverend Wright moment (h/t Andrew Sullivan)

So pardon me for jumping the gun but I am now willing to bet that the BIG news of the Republican National Convention will be... drum roll please!...

Palin will be dropped by week's end and Daddy Yankee (above) will be McCain's new running mate! Here's why:

Both met John McCain only once and evidence indicates they were hardly vetted, if at all:

• In a jaw-dropping move, Daddy Yankee appeared at an event staged in an Arizona high-school a week ago Monday and endorsed McCain (they had only met only once before and the campaign staff were reported to be at a loss on how the endorsement arrangement came about - and were clueless about his raunchy lyrics).
• In a jaw-dropping move, Sarah Palin appeared at an event staged in Ohio on Friday and was named as McCain's vice-presidential pick (they had met only once before and she was only vetted a week ago today - and staffers were clueless about everything that has been revealed since she was selected).

Both have children with colorful names:

• Daddy Yankee, who is 31, has three children with his wife Mirredys: For some bizarre reason they thought it would be cute to call their kids Yamilet, Jesairis (nicknamed Yayi) and Jeremy (ok, Jeremy gets a pass). For someone who is a musical star in Puerto Rico, he is famously protective of their privacy and rarely talks about them to press.
• Sarah Palin, who is 44, has five chidren with her husband Ted: For some bizarre reason they thought it would be cute to call their kids Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and Trig (ok, I admit Trig is a pretty cool name). For someone who is a political star in Alaska, she has certainly benefitted from having a large family and being seen as a mom with good ol' American family values.
  

Both love la gasolina:

• Daddy Yankee's biggest hit was "Gasolina" which McCain famoulsy invoked during the endorsement event apparently oblivious to the fact that the song is not about pumping gasoline but, instead, about - er - pumping semen into a girl.
• One of Sarah Palin's biggest hits with conservatives is her embrace of oil drilling as a panacea for the economic doldrums. McCain has famously said that the ticket will push for accelerated off-shore oil drilling aparently oblivious to the fact that he's just making oll companies wealthy and destroying the environment with little economic return.
  

Both love their guns and ammo:

• In building up his street-cred, Daddy Yankee can't stop singing about guns and ammo even though, as with "Gasolina" sometimes in his songs a gun means something else altogether.
• In building up her street-cred, Sarah Palin can shoot AK-47's with the best of them even when she's showing her children how to kill Bambi's dad.

Both are way, way, waaaay out-of-field VP selections which appeal to very specific voting niches:

• Daddy Yankee is from Puerto Rico and appeals to Latinos
• Sarah Palin is from Idaho and appeals to gun-tottin' PUMA's

Both are tapped to head-line events during this week's Republican National Convention:

• Daddy Yankee headlined what was supposed to be a Latinos for John McCain fundraiser concert on Monday (which, alas, came on the day that Hurricane Gustave hit Louisiana so the money was given to the Red Cross instead).
• Sarah Palin is headlining tonight's prime time speeches (which, alas, was meant to be celebratory but now seems to be all about damage control).

Neither has any idea of what a vice president does:

• Daddy Yankee 'cause, well, he's Daddy Yankee
• As for Sarah Palin she is actually on record (check the 2:55 minute mark from this YouTube video from a month ago)

And if she doesn't have a clue, why not select Daddy Yankee for Vice President? I mean, how worse a VP selection could it turn out to be?

Plus, McCain would look more hip to the youngsters as well! Or not... (via David Ortez)

Ben Smith: Daddy Yankee tried to endorse Obama before endorsing McCain

And, regarding the endorsement of John McCain by reggaeton star Daddy Yankee, how could things not get even funnier?

If you missed it: On Monday Republican presidential candidate John McCain made a special appearance at Central High School in Phoenix, AZ - where his wife Cindy graduated in 1972 - and brought out Daddy Yankee for a public endorsement in front of 120 cheering students.

That afternoon I translated an excerpt from "Latigazo" - just one of Daddy Yankee's many raunchy songs (in it, he describes being with a woman who enjoys being hit, slapped, whipped and punched in and out of bed and sings about asking her to kiss a good buddy of his) - and wondered about the stupidity of staging an endorsement by such a misogynist recording artist at a high-school!

For Daddy Yankee the endorsement was supposedly all about McCain's track record on immigration issues (never mind that in moving to the right he has dropped most of his pro-immigration stands) and a Latina.com article says this of Daddy Yankee: "When we asked if he had plans to meet with Democratic candidate Barack Obama, Yankee responded with a curt, 'No.'"

Curtness indeed! Today Ben Smith at Politico says this:

A Democratic Party source tells me a representative for Daddy Yankee approached Obama's Latino outreach staffers earlier this year about possibly endorsing Obama. But he didn't pass the vetting, and Obama's aides said they weren't interested in his support. So, apparently, he moved over to McCain.

So here is John McCain, cluelessly walking into what seems to be an attempt by Daddy Yankee to use the presidential race to get publicity for his sputtering career. Damn! Just who is vetting who at the McCain camp?

If this had been an Obama endorsement event Fox News and the right-wing radio chatterers would be going crazy with this. And, as silly as it may be, you do have to wonder just how seriously clueless the McCain campaign is.

UPDATES: Fox News pipes up! If only to say that Daddy Yankee is denying he ever approached the Obama camp (no mention of his songs' lyrics though).

Also, there is a Hispanic Ledareship Fund press release out saying that Daddy Yankee will be headlining a Fiesta Latina concert on the opening night of the Republican National Convention (Sept. 1).

In the meantime, recording artist Fat Joe tells MTV that Daddy Yankee is a sell-out.

FACEBOOK GROUP: By the way, there is now a Latinos who reject Daddy Yankee's endorsement of McCain Facebook Group.

SIDE-NOTE: Ben Smith's original post on Politico was titled "Obama rebuffed by Yankee Daddy" which he quickly changed to Daddy Yankee when someone pointed out his mistake which shows how little about Latino pop culture some of of the most read bloggers know out there. Then there's Wonkette who says: "It was confusing when Hispanic rapper guy Daddy Yankee endorsed John McCain in person the other day, because who is Daddy Yankee?" which is actually a common sentiment out there as well. If you haven't heard about Daddy Yankee, then he must be a nobody, right?

RELATED:

• Barack Obama didn't want Daddy Yankee's endorsement anyway (Guanabee)
• Not all Latinos support Abuelo Yankee (Reggaetronica)
  

Reggaeton singer Daddy Yankee endorses John McCain

Castígala! [Punish her!]
Dale un latigazo! [Hit her with the whip!]
Ella se está buscando el fuetazo! [She's looking for a lashing!]
Castígala! [Punish her!]
Dale un latigazo! [Hit her with the whip!]
En la pista te voy a dar... [On the dance floor I will give you...]
Yo pal' de azotazos y palmetazos! [...a couple of beatings and slap her with the palm of my hand]

Just the opening salvo from reggaeton singer Daddy Yankee's hit "Latigazo" (video above). And that's as a prelude to singing about sharing the submissive girl with a friend and describing how she asks to be beaten-up again while having sex with him!

Yeah, I know. Pretty par-for-the-course when it comes to reggaeton. Thing is earlier today Mr. Daddy 'Let's-beat-up-that-girl-on-the-dance-floor" Yankee endorsed Republican presidential candidate John McCain in front of dozens of adoring, giggling and screaming teenage girls at a hush-hush event closed to the general public.

And guess what! A beaming McCain fully accepted the endorsement (see video below).

Not that we expect McCain to be a reaggaton fan or to even know Daddy Yankee (or what he sings about) but this is up there with McCain inardevertedly offering his wife Cindy McCain as a contestant for a topless beauty pageant at a biker's rally. Yikes!

By the way, Marisol has a different take on this endorsement even as we both agree that it might backfire on McCain:

Rather than addressing the social realties that reggaeton speaks to and represents, it remains easier for certain segments of the Latino/a community to dismiss reggaeton and the culture around it as an aberration of Latinidad. It's crazy because in a way this whole Daddy Yankee - McCain thing made me think about the way's in which Latinos/as are climbing over each other for a piece of that Americano Dream. At whose cost are Latinos/as representing themselves as idealized American citizens? (Excerpt from "Los Republicanos, pt. Deux" - Post Pomo Nuyorican Homo, August 25, 2008)

Update:

• Ben Smith: Daddy Yankee tried to endorse Obama before endorsing McCain (Aug. 27, 2008)

Related:

• Daddy Yankee Comes Out... As a Young Republican and for McCain (Rod2.0)
• McCain endorser blends reggaeton with 'gangsta rap' (Raw Story)
  
• Is a John McCain - Daddy Yankee ticket forthcoming? (Los Angeles Times)