Did Republicans sign a pact in the early days of the Obama administration to get him out of office?

Answer 1

There are a number of political observers who believe this is true, including reporter Robert Draper, who wrote a 2012 book about it, "Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives." Draper documents a strategy that began as soon as the president was elected, and cites interviews with numerous congressional sources, about meetings held to formulate a plan to win back the White House by making it impossible for the president to govern and denying him even the smallest success. While Draper has been accused of being a Democratic partisan, it should be noted that even some moderate Republican columnists and political theorists have noted the paralysis in congress and have agreed with Draper's central thesis. In a widely read piece based on their new book, two political writers (one from a liberal think tank, and one from a conservative think tank) came to the same conclusion: that Republicans as a party were in fact intentionally obstructing everything (I enclose the link to their piece).

Not everyone agrees with these assertions, but there is certainly some evidence to support them. There have been many quotes from Republican leaders (and Republican talk show hosts) about wanting to make sure President Obama would not be re-elected, beginning with when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) said "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." There have also been news stories about an unofficial agreement by Republicans to obstruct everything the president wanted to do. This caused Republicans in congress to begin opposing even those policies they had supported under President Bush, as well as setting a record for the most filibusters, preventing all kinds of legislation from even being voted on. Such actions gave critics of the Republicans more reason to believe their actions were part of an organized political strategy.

Answer 2

No, there is no evidence to suggest that Republicans signed a pact to get President Obama out of office during his early days in office. Political parties regularly oppose and criticize each other's policies, but there is no record of a formal pact or agreement with such a specific objective.