When we look back at this particular week much later on, it seems we'll remember it as the week the 2016 presidential race truly began in earnest. Measured by the sheer volume of headlines generated and punditry produced, now will be seen as the moment when Hillary Clinton reintroduced herself to America. With the kickoff of her book tour, Clinton has already started tongues wagging (in a major way) about what her chances will be in 2016.

I realize this may disappoint those who prefer one election (this year's midterms) to be over before we all start talking about the next one. It may delight those who love the former First Lady and Secretary of State. It may even disgust those who have always hated her famous husband, or who just can't stand Hillary herself. But it brings up one question, at least for me. This is the least-consequential question raised, I should warn, in a week chock-full of inconsequential questions (at least, as evidenced by her television interviews so far). Call me irresponsible, but what I've been wondering (as I foresee many, many columns about Clinton in the future) is: what should we call her?

I'm not talking about epithets or vicious labels. I will leave that to Rightwingistan, as I have no doubt whatsoever that they'll come up with some doozies. What I'm talking about instead is a nickname that can be used both "in polite company" and also with more joshing-good-fun than malice.

Hey, I warned you it would be an inconsequential question.

All presidents don't have snappy nicknames, even in recent history, so maybe it's not even a valid question. But that didn't stop me from asking it, so let's at least attempt to come up with an answer. President Barack Hussein Obama doesn't really have all that great a nickname in the press, upon reflection. The closest I can think of would be "No Drama Obama," which sprang from his campaign style. Some mock his office with terms like "Community Organizer In Chief" or "Campaigner In Chief," but those aren't really technically nicknames for the man (rather than the office). There are plenty of negative nicknames ("Obummer" springs immediately to mind), but that's not really what I'm going for -- not so much a name political enemies use, but rather a moniker a friend might use in a teasing manner.

Moving back further, George Walker Bush was so prolific in the nickname department, he even created one for his dad to use (more on that in a moment). "Dubya" was probably the most common, which came from his middle initial of course. A little more on the mocking side was a combination of this with his "Arbusto" oil company name ("shrub" or "bush" in Spanish), which led to "Shrubya" or just plain "The Shrub." A line he uttered later in his presidency stuck, and he became known (somewhat mockingly, but not by all) as "The Decider." This, like Obama, was occasionally extended to "Decider In Chief," redundant though this may have been.

Of course, William Jefferson Clinton had a raft of nicknames to choose from. Originally he tried to bill himself (pun somewhat intended) as "the man from Hope," in a play on his hometown's name, but that never really stuck. The name that followed him from Arkansas was instead "Slick Willie," which obviously falls into the negative "used only by his opponents" sort of nickname, amusing as it is. Once the campaign started, Clinton -- in a masterful feat of lemons-to-lemonade -- turned a second-place finish in New Hampshire (second-place, mind you) into convincing people to call him "The Comeback Kid." That worked for a while, but the ones that really got a lot of play after he became president were "The Big Dog" and (my personal favorite) "Bubba." Bubba seemed to accurately describe Clinton in so many ways, although the Big Dog label certainly had more of a sexual overtone (which became much more apt, later in his term in office).

George Herbert Walker Bush was so personality-challenged that he wasn't really the nickname type. He did have a personal nickname before his time in office -- "Poppy" -- that some halfheartedly used, but (as previously mentioned), he didn't really get a snappy nickname until after his son entered the Oval Office, eight years after he left it. Because generations of schoolchildren to come are going to have a hard time sorting the two men out in history (as we all did with John Adams and John Quincy Adams, and getting the two Harrisons in the right order... even though, upon reflection, the Roosevelts were easy enough to keep separate). George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, say, 100 years from now, are going to be a trivia question asked on the 22nd century's equivalent of Jeopardy! ("Who is... um... George Herbert Bush?" Bzzzt! Thanks for playing...). But among friends and family, the two are jocularly now known as "41" and "43," which (if history actually remembers these nicknames) could certainly help, since they enumerate in what order the two man served as president.

Ronald Wilson Reagan was no slouch when it came to nicknames, but he had a whole career as a movie actor to draw upon (as with "The Gipper"). His earliest nickname, "Dutch," wasn't really used much outside his circle of friends, at least not until a biography of him used it as the title. Much more common was "Ronnie" in the concise nickname category. As president, however, Reagan earned two names -- "The Great Communicator" (from his friends), and "The Teflon President" (from those frustrated that "nothing seemed to ever stick to him"). Moving further back isn't all that helpful ("Jimmy" Carter was pretty mundane as a political nickname, and "Tricky Dick" was obviously not used in friendship to describe Nixon), so we'll just end our traipse through the past with Reagan (or, as his own detractors were wont to call him, "Ronnie Ray-Gun").

Returning to the present, we are left with the burning question (OK, well... maybe "stupidest question I've heard all week"): what are we going to call Hillary? Does she even need a nickname? She's almost universally known by her first name already (mostly to differentiate her from her husband), which she embraced in the campaign posters for her 2008 presidential campaign. Maybe "Hillary" is enough of a nickname, in other words.

Or maybe not. She seems to have plenty of past episodes which might have birthed nicknames (such as cupcake-baking, just to name one), but somehow didn't. Even the whole Monica Lewinsky/impeachment thing somehow didn't brand Hillary with anything more than a song title ("Stand By Your Man"), which isn't an actual nickname. Some, early in her husband's presidency, made much of her retaining her maiden name (some still will only call her "Hillary Rodham Clinton" or even "HRC"). She tried to take the helm of health care reform, which was derided as "Hillarycare," but the label was attached to the legislation, not to her. When she won a Senate seat in New York, many called her "carpetbagger," but this never really caught on, and disappeared completely after her re-election.

The most well-known aspect to tease Hillary over never morphed into a widely-used nickname, since it dealt with her sartorial choices rather than any inherent characterization. Late-night comics still routinely get laughs every time they can work the word "pantsuit" into a joke -- but it's never become an actual nickname, to the best of my knowledge.

Even her 2008 presidential campaign didn't provoke any nickname other than perhaps "Hill" (or "Hil," depending on your spelling preferences). One memorable rant by Tina Fey on Saturday Night Live (the "Bitch is the new black" rant, to be precise) could have pasted a nickname on Hillary, but "bitch" isn't really going to fly as a chummy sort of nickname, no matter how brilliantly Fey explained why it should ("Bitches get things done!").

Her opponents and detractors are likely going to come up with all sorts of nasty nicknames for Hillary Clinton (a fate she largely avoided in 2008 due to not being the Democratic nominee), but I can't help wonder what people who generally support her may come up with as a snappy label. Her stint as Secretary of State didn't provide much fodder for friends, and even her detractors never came up with any snappy way of utilizing "frequent flyer" or "Benghazi" into a title for Hillary.

Of course, if she wins in 2016, she's already got a negative label that may become widely-used (due to its snappy, alliterative, and amusing nature). She first got this label when Bill entered office, and she shocked quite a few Washington denizens by choosing not the traditional "First Lady" office in the East Wing, preferring to be closer to the action. This gave rise to a (seriously negative) label that we may be hearing in years to come: "The Wicked Witch of the West Wing." It's not the best nickname in the world, and it certainly doesn't qualify as friendly, but it is the only one I've heard which may become widely-used, due to its catchy nature. But it won't become common until and unless she wins the presidency -- meaning it is completely useless as an answer to the question: "What should we call Hillary during the campaign?"

I leave the question open: can anyone come up with a fairly-friendly nickname for Hillary Clinton? I find myself bereft of ideas, personally. Seeing as how she's already run one national presidential campaign with nothing more than "Hillary," she may not ever get anything as appealing as her husband's "Bubba." Inconsequential or not, though (and since I haven't yet read her book), can anyone come up with a snappy Hillary nickname that has the potential to go viral? Since this week we're all going to be inundated with her book tour, the time is at least ripe to pose such a non-momentous question.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant