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#WeCantWait: Obama's Fans And Foes Take The Argument To Twitter

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The news that President Obama and his team are going to make the case that "we can't wait" any longer for Congress (and in particular, his Republican opponents) to take action on his ideas about how to boost job growth has inspired much discussion on Twitter today.

"#WeCantWait" is, it seems, an almost perfect hashtag no matter which side you're on.

Obama's critics are using the meme for their purposes, and right now appear to be posting the majority of the tweets. A few examples:

-- "44 is out the door Sunday, 01/20/13 and #WeCantWait! T-minus 454 days and counting!" (@TeeDee1)

-- "#WeCantWait to sweep #Failed Liberal policies into the dustbin of history, where they belong." (@Parzlee)

-- "#WeCantWait to stop mortgaging our grandchildren's future." (@somethingfishie)

But the president's supporters are in the mix as well:

-- "#WeCantWait for @SpeakerBoehner and the rest of the GOP to be voted OUT!!!" (@pretcap)

-- "WeCantWait for the #GOP to get voted out, we need Obama's job plan now! Call your Congressman! I am calling." (@AmyTidd)

-- "#WeCantWait for #GOP to stop promoting greater economic inequality & work with President." (@BlueDuPage)

As this 2008 video taken during the last presidential campaign shows, the president has used the "we can't wait" line before. Of course, that was before Twitter was the chattering place it is today.

(Note at 2:40 p.m. ET: we've added that last phrase above because Twitter did exist in 2008, as commenter Wilman Songer correctly noted.)

Update at 1:15 p.m. ET: On the administration's official blog, White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer says the president will be using "the mantra 'we can't wait' " to "highlight executive actions that his administration will take ... [and] continue to pressure Congressional Republicans to put country before party and pass the American Jobs Act."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.