GOP is the traditional nickname for the Republican Party.    The party's official history traces the term back to the late 19th century citing an article in the Boston post headlined "The G.O.P. Doomed".  Some history sources suggest "Grand Old Party" or simply GOP may have evolved from the term used to refer to British Prime Minister William Gladstone - the G.O.M or the Grand Old Man.  In Richard Nixon's 1964 presidential campaign the acronym was used briefly as the basis for the slogan the "Go-Party", but by the late '70s it had become firmly associated with the term Grand Old Party as it is today.