It seems that everyone wants a piece of Obama. His family tree has roots worldwide, and everyone is clamoring to claim him (including our fair Scotland).

But, along with this love for the man himself comes a love for his campaign slogan, which featured prominently in his victory speech following the election: "Yes We Can."

In France, a group of political leaders has adopted the phrase to spur a new anti-racism manifesto. Locally, the slogan was adopted by the SNP , although they claim to have made up the slogan well before Obama's political career (a strange coincidence, I guess, that it should come back to them only after Obama's momentous win).

A quick google search of the slogan shows myriad others claiming to have thought of and inspired it. A humorous blog post from The Daily Show reveals that in 2004, the current American President, George W. Bush, rode around the country campaigning in the "Yes, America Can" bus. The phrase also echoes the slogan of Cesar Chavez, an activist in the American Southwest who rallied farm-workers in 1972 by saying, "Si se puede."

I can understand the draw. As a slogan, it's pretty good—elegant in its simplicity. But a slogan is made powerful not by its wording, but its context. When Cesar Chavez yelled it out, half-starved on hunger strike in Phoenix to get farm-workers rights, it meant something. When Obama used it as the rallying call in his victory speech, attempting to unite a fractured nation, it meant something. One can hope that in France, it will also mean something.

In the end, it doesn't matter who owns the phrase or who said it first, because it’s the meaning behind it that ultimately makes it memorable.

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