WASHINGTON (AP) -- A nickname, says the proverb, is "the heaviest stone the devil can throw at a man." Some stick like burrs. Others fall away and are forgotten.
American presidents have attracted and endured nicknames ever since George Washington was called the "Sword of the Revolution," "Father of His Country," the "Sage of Mount Vernon" and, interestingly, "The Old Fox."President Clinton will probably never entirely shed "Slick Willie."
But "the Comeback Kid," the title Clinton awarded himself after finishing a surprising second in the 1992 New Hampshire primary, is likely to be equally enduring.
Presidential nicknames have been piling up for two centuries. Many were plainly sarcastic.
When John Adams insisted that Congress call President Washington "His Highness," some senators dubbed Adams "His Rotundity."
Many people thought of Martin Van Buren as sly and "foxy," "the Little Magician." But finally, to his political foes he was little Van, "the used-up man."
Lincoln survived many nickname salvos: tyrant, dictator, destroyer of liberty.
The "railsplitter's" defenders, of course, could fire back with "Honest Abe," "Father Abraham" and "The Great Emancipator." Lincoln's secretaries had their own nicknames for him -- "The Ancient" and "The Tycoon."