William "Bull" Halsey. George "Blood-n-guts" Patton. Ulysses "U.S." Grant. Abraham "Honest Abe" Lincoln.
Great nicknames for eminent Americans. Nicknames with one thing in common: they were bestowed by the press, and never claimed by the men themselves. To my knowledge, Lincoln never called himself "Honest Abe," Grant went by "Sam," and supposedly Bill Halsey hated the nickname "Bull."
And now we have John "The Maverick" McCain and Sarah "Hockey Mom" Palin.
If the press wants to use those nicknames, so be it. But time and again we hear McCain and Palin calling themselves "Maverick" and "Hockey Mom." Palin even makes the obligatory "quote" gesture when she does it. And what comes to mind is not Lincoln or Patton or Grant or Halsey... what comes to mind is someone else entirely... revealed below the fold.
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