Maybe politics is the new music industry. These days it seems like pop
stars are more active promoting causes than new singles. Yesterday a
group of Latin musicians and actors released a video
pitching presidential hopeful Barack Obama to voters, just in time for
Sunday's primary election on the island of Puerto Rico. The acoustic,
subdued number is very much in the vein of Will.i.am's "Yes, We Can" video released in advance of the so-called Super Tuesday primaries in February — except it's in Spanish.

Funny
thing about Puerto Rico: Since it's a U.S. territory, but not
officially a state, island residents can't vote for the president in
the general election — but in this year's crazy primary contest, they
can have a big impact on who gets the nomination. Sadly, the myth
propagated by the NYT columnist David Brooks,
among others, that Puerto Rico might decide everything by awarding all
63 island delegates in a winner-take-all primary is not true, as Fact Checker
Michael Dobbs revealed. The PR primary is not winner-take-all — it's
just that usually there's only one candidate left by the time the show
gets to the island, so there's no contest.

Not so, this year. All this Puerto Rican electoral power has both Obama and his rival Hillary Clinton
literally attempting to dance their way into Boricuas' hearts. O does a
kind of shuffle that maybe suggests a salsa step; H, beer in hand,
sways from side to side to Enrique Iglesias like a raver at 3 a.m.

Just in case the candidates' dancing is not enough to sway the Boricua vote, producer and band leader Andres Levin
gathered a bunch of his friends to make the pitch for their man.
"Podemos Con Obama" (With Obama, We Can) features star power like
Mexican candy-rocker Paulina Rubio and Spanish crooner Alejandro Sanz, along with lots of crunchier alternative types, like the earthy Mexican-American folk diva Lila Downs and Dominican Broadway darling Lin Manuel Miranda.

There are hardcore reggaeton stars like Don Omar and Voltio, a few telenovela actresses, and a pregnant Jessica Alba,
who — unlike Obama — speaks in English, expressing her concern for the
environment. In short, here's a whole lot of folks representing those
"Hispanics" Hillary supposedly has all sewn up.

My favorite
part of the video is the beginning, before any stars show up, before
Obama says a few words in Spanish (if you think he's halting in his
English delivery, he's really, really halting en espanol, but
the accent's not bad): The video opens with the message that George W.
Bush won the election in 2004 by just over 3.4 million votes. Next
frame: More than 8 million eligible Latino voters didn't show up.

Oye, Boricuas, what are you waiting for? This Sunday, get out of your house and vote!