# Obama's 2nd term: what will be GOP's top goal? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [February 22, 2012, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613 "2012-02-22T06:36:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2012, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/41 "2012-02-23T04:27:44Z")
Took a year to gnaw through the straps again. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2012, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/42 "2012-02-23T06:18:16Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > He’s still smoking. Supposedly he quit more than a year ago. The public never seemed to care very much anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2012, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/43 "2012-02-23T16:13:27Z")
[WAKE UP SHEEPLE!!!](http://xkcd.com/1013/) ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/44 "2012-02-24T00:54:39Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > You know, I wonder how that will play out. “Mr. McConnell, now that you’re failed at achieving your party’s single most important goal, Your Turtleship, are you willing to concede that this effort was an enormous waste of the GOP’s energy and resources over the past four years?” I will give anyone a hundred bucks if they are actually able to ask him that on camera and capture his reaction and answer. I’m serious, I’ll do it ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/45 "2012-02-24T13:01:59Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > I will give anyone a hundred bucks if they are actually able to ask him that on camera and capture his reaction and answer. I’m serious, I’ll do it He wouldn’t flinch for a second as he responded “To the extent that we were able to frustrate the job-destruction of his radical socialist agenda, every sacrifice we made on behalf of the American people to defend the Constitution and protect our way of life was well-worth the price we paid.” ---
**Author:** ![BigAppleBucky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigapplebucky/32/178_2.png) [@BigAppleBucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigAppleBucky)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/46 "2012-02-27T18:16:02Z")
My most sincere hope would be for the GOP not to veer even further to the right. Hopefully, cooler heads prevail and the party works toward projecting a more moderate and practical image to the American public by reaching at least a few accomidations with an Obama administration. However, given the violent images at the birth control hearings two weeks ago, one worries that real right wing armed violence with the tacit approval of top Congressional Republicans is at least a possibility. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/47 "2012-02-29T07:14:52Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Realistically, most of the top Republicans expect him to win a second term. Incumbents usually do. That’s why you see the second-raters running this year. The better candidates are waiting until 2016 when they can run against a new Democrat. > > So the plan is to continue the plan. While that looks like the case alot of top Democrats thought the same thing in 1992. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/48 "2012-03-02T03:49:43Z")
> [@Cosmic Relief](#): > > Why can’t it be both? Smear Obama’s legacy while simultaneously roadblocking everything he does. In particular there are likely to be some SCOTUS nominations coming up… that’s that the GOP is really after in this election, and I think you can expect those to be radioactive if Obama is the nominator. > > The only really interesting thing will be to see which Republicans, if any, defect from the single-minded obstructionism and start to play ball with Obama Snowe’s successor, Collins, Brown, Kirk, Murkowski, and Rubio (despite being a Tea Party candidate, he is quite moderate). > [@Ambivalid](#): > > This. They failed to prevent a second term, so cooking up a bogus scandal to remove him from office via impeachment seems a likely Plan B. What might the “scandal” be? So like how the left was out to get Richard Nixon from day one? > [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > I wouldn’t be surprised either if they tried that. I also wouldn’t be surprised if they whipped up as much hate as possible hoping for an assassination; honestly, I’m surprised Obama has lived this long, I expected him to have probably been assassinated long time ago given the sheer thuggishness and insanity on the Right. Secret Service doing a good job, I guess. The American Right is not a violent faction with the exception of certain deranged individuals (ie Tim McVeigh)-indeed is is interesting to note that while the violence by the American Right has been by isolated individuals violence by the New Left in the 60s and by European leftists now have been far more organized and in the form of mobs (ie the various college riots or the Greek riots). And your amusing expectation that most of the Right has any desire to assassinate the President to the extent that they could have penetrate the extensive security detail merely shows your ideas of the Right-wing is no different from Tea Partiers who think Obama is Stalin and out to put them in gulags. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/49 "2012-03-02T04:19:25Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > So like how the left was out to get Richard Nixon from day one? So said his famous persecution-mania, at any rate. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/50 "2012-03-02T06:56:25Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > So like how the left was out to get Richard Nixon from day one? Poor Nixon. The left _made_ him send those “plumbers” to the Watergate and bug the DNC’s headquarters. Oh, the humanity. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/51 "2012-03-02T14:27:45Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > Poor Nixon. The left _made_ him send those “plumbers” to the Watergate and bug the DNC’s headquarters. Oh, the humanity. Worse, they had all these possibly-electable-in-1972 **candidates**. . . CREEP had no choice but to sabotage every campaign but McGovern’s. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/52 "2012-03-02T19:52:25Z")
> [@](#): > > Snowe’s successor, Collins, Brown, Kirk, Murkowski, and Rubio (despite being a Tea Party candidate, he is quite moderate). First off, the odds are on Snowe’s successor being a Democrat, and possibly a quite liberal one, not a Republican. Second, if her successor _is_ the one Republican who’s running for the seat, he’s an extreme-right Tea Partier, not a moderate. You’re not only counting a chicken that hasn’t hatched yet, it’s a grocery-store egg. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/53 "2012-03-03T00:06:14Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > Poor Nixon. The left _made_ him send those “plumbers” to the Watergate and bug the DNC’s headquarters. Oh, the humanity. The liberal elements of the country hounded Nixon long before Watergate. > [@Chronos](#): > > First off, the odds are on Snowe’s successor being a Democrat, and possibly a quite liberal one, not a Republican. Second, if her successor _is_ the one Republican who’s running for the seat, he’s an extreme-right Tea Partier, not a moderate. You’re not only counting a chicken that hasn’t hatched yet, it’s a grocery-store egg. I’m pretty sure more candidates will announce sooner or later. Are the independent in the race, BTW, including the former governor more GOP-leaning or Democrat-leaning/ ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/54 "2012-03-03T01:58:27Z")
> [@](#): > > I’m pretty sure more candidates will announce sooner or later. Better make it sooner: They’ve got two weeks until the deadline. ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/55 "2012-03-03T02:24:27Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > The liberal elements of the country hounded Nixon long before Watergate. Out of curiosity, just how many years of hounding by those evil liberals is required to make rigging an election, breaking and entering, illegal wiretapping, and obstruction of justice peachy keen in your book? ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/56 "2012-03-03T11:51:45Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > The liberal elements of the country hounded Nixon long before Watergate. Cool! List some crimes that are totally acceptable to you for Obama’s people to commit now that Tea Party elements have “hounded” him for years? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/57 "2012-03-03T17:18:59Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > So like how the left was out to get Richard Nixon from day one? > [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > The liberal elements of the country hounded Nixon long before Watergate. I was twelve years old when RMN had his “day one,” so I admittedly wasn’t paying much attention; but in 1972, I walked for McGovern a little. The most “hounding” thing I recall being brought up was something he had said during the Johnson Administration about four years being enough time for ANY American President to finish a war, and if a President couldn’t manage it in one term he didn’t deserve a second. Your memory is perhaps better than mine. Could you share with us some stories of the pre-Watergate “hounding” that RMN endured? Bonus points if you didn’t learn about them at the inappropriate shrine in Yorba Linda. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/58 "2012-03-03T17:38:45Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > The liberal elements of the country hounded Nixon long before Watergate. You’re just embarrassing yourself at this point. Best quit while you’re behind. ---
**Author:** ![Nana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Nana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nana)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/59 "2012-03-03T20:49:15Z")
#1 Top goal… To fight tooth and nail to kill any policy, piece of legislation, executive order or constitutional end run that furthers AGENDA 21! ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/60 "2012-03-04T11:07:26Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > … in 1972, I walked for McGovern a little. The most “hounding” thing I recall being brought up was something he had said during the Johnson Administration about four years being enough time for ANY American President to finish a war, and if a President couldn’t manage it in one term he didn’t deserve a second. I’m about four times as old as **Qin** , and I remember, slightly, the election of 1960. There was indeed great antipathy against Nixon even then. My father told me he was a crook. “Know Nixon: No Nixon” was a popular bumper sticker. As far as I recall, the antipathy was directed more against his character than his policies. Recall that Nixon achieved his initial fame by being, in effect, a disciple of Joseph McCarthy. Given what we now know of Nixon’s methods, I think fairness requires that we view those who “hated” Nixon in 1960 as wise judges of character, not merely “liberal hounders.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613.md?page=4)