I like presidential nicknames. It's hard to say where they come from, or who starts them. But sometimes they just catch on.
We've all heard Ronald Reagan called The Great Communicator. People use it because he could convince most people of any old dumb thing, regardless of the truth.
And of course Abraham Lincoln was The Great Emancipator.
Did you know that Herbert Hoover's nickname was The Great Engineer? Before he became president, he was a leading civil engineer, famous for volunteering his services when the Mississippi flooded thousands of acres of farmland in 1927.
But where do these things start? Someone has to be the first person to think them up.
Sometimes the origin is obvious, based on achievements.
The Trust Buster - Theodore Roosevelt.
Old Hickory - Andrew Jackson. Nickname given to him by the men under his command in the military, supposedly because he was as tough as old hickory wood.
Sometimes they start from scorn, to mock the president.
The Schoolmaster - Woodrow Wilson, because of his academic airs and for lecturing visitors.
The Dude President - Chester A. Arther. Because of his love of fancy clothes and extravagant luxuries.
Little Jemmy - James Madison. Because he was the shortest president ever, at 5 feet 4 inches.
Sometimes it's just because of how things happened to work out.
His Accidency - John Tyler. Because he was the first vice-president to ascend to the presidency, when President William Henry Harrison became the first president to die in office, only a month after being inaugurated.
So in the spirit of the above, I'd like to suggest a nickname for President Obama:
The Great Spelunker - Because he loves caving.
This is much more accurate than "No Drama Obama." There is plenty of drama because of him. Time after time, we get all worked up when we think he's going to fight for what we imagine are his core principles, the promises he made again and again in his campaign. We all attack and insult each other, back and forth, on and on. We deny we're attacking anyone, we all claim we're just urging the president to do what's right, or what's possible, or what he promised, whatever.
And then he caves.
No one can stop Obama from caving. Try all you like, scream and shout, post blogs, raise money, start email-writing drives, whatever. He will be caving no matter what you do. It's kind of nice in caves, always a cool 63 degrees no matter what's happening in the outside world.
So, Obama caves all the time, whether he needs to do it or not. He caves before anyone even asks him to. He caves even when everyone is telling him not to do it. Face it, he is a dedicated, non-stop caver. Some people just are.
"The Great Spelunker." Once we all accept this, the meta-wars will stop.