Standing on the Shoulders of Giants^1

Everyone tuned into the US democratic primary will be aware that the Clinton camp has gone bibliography crazy in the past day or two, accusing Obama of borrowing without credit a few lines of a speech given this weekend from Massachussetts governer Deval Patrick. Clinton’s strategists hope to bring Obama’s cultish suporters back to reality, since a man with no original words is certainly not a man worth listening to for very long. Patrick fired back that his friend, Obama, was free to use his ideas and rhetoric if he liked. Possibly more remarkable than the Clinton-camp response is that of Republican strategist, Holly Robichaud. “It certainly goes in the face of his squeaky-clean image,” she wrote in a weekly blog for the Herald. “It is clear he used the same words – there is no question about it. It will hurt him, but maybe not enough for him to lose ground.” His squeeky clean image? How many of us have written a paper at one point during our careers with perhaps an improperly labelled or cited source?

As a result of Plagiarism-Gate, I’d like to be the first to recognize the source for Obama’s most memorable line to date: Yes We Can. Bob the Builder, a children’s television character created by Keith Chapman, was the source of this popular line of vernacular. He sings a song which is sourced below for all to review. I mention this because I want to make sure we’re all being as up front as possible about where our ideas come from before those drips over at Clinton and Republican headquarters decide to take a bite. And also because it’s gonna take a hell of a lot longer than a phonecall to Patrick for Chapman to come up with an animated response allowing Obama access to Yes We Can, with all the clay figures and the stop motion and all that.

1. Isaac Newton: Pigmaei gigantium humeris impositi plusquam ipsi gigantes vident.

Obama Says Borrowed Lines Not a Big Deal
Free speech: For the taking  
Bob the Builder