Republicans on Twitter Say #WeCantWait Either: The Ticker

Note to President Obama -- when launching a new slogan, try not to pick one your opponents can co-opt so easily.

On Monday, the White House kicked off a new effort to get Congress to pass the American Jobs Act using the mantra “we can’t wait,” communications director Dan Pfeiffer wrote on the White House blog. Republicans have taken over the Twitter hashtag #WeCantWait to turn the rallying cry against the president.

Reince Priebus (@ReincePriebus), the chairman of the Republican National Committee, tweeted “#WeCantWait to make @BarackObama a one-term president.” Speaker of the House John Boehner (@SpeakerBoehner) tweeted “WeCantWait for Senate Democrats to approve more than a dozen House-passed bills 4jobs Forgotten15.”

Obama’s Twitter account, @BarackObama, hasn’t used the #WeCantWait hashtag yet. But a White House live Twitter chat from the @WHLive account Tuesday afternoon used the slogan twice -- “#WeCantWait for today’s Office Hours” and “#WeCantWait to do it again.”

Republicans have clearly learned from 2008, when Obama capitalized on social media campaigning, the New York Times reported Monday. Now Republican leaders are embracing the new media tools to spread -- and repeat -- their messages.

As Ramesh Ponnuru pointed out Tuesday, maybe Obama isn’t as good at the politics game as he thinks he is. But #WeCantWait did open up an interesting question -- when it comes to U.S. politics, what can’t you wait for?

(Kirsten Salyer is the social media editor for Bloomberg View.)