“Yes, we can” Translation

I was reading an article about Obama and the Spanish speakers in the States and I found that the journalist translated, the “YES WE CAN” campaign slogan as “si se puede” (if we can), instead of “Sí, se puede!”  (Yes we can!). What a difference an accent mark can make!

The funniest thing about this was that the title of the Article was “Obama’s Message Lost in Translation” and it turned out that the Journalist was lost in translation too.

https://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080714/OPINION12/807140316/1002/OPINION

Of course, it would have been good for the journalist to have done a little homework on this or asked someone.