Posted on 12/15/2016 3:59:22 PM PST by TigerClaws
The tactic it is using - drain the energy of the opposition by incessant questions.
We recognize the method. Sometimes a little too late but better than never. What miserable little lives they must lead to have nothing better to do. ‘Activists’ - trying to make themselves feel relative and important. I despise them one and all, black or white or just plain yellow.
Here’s an interesting fact: When Obama leaves office, he’s no longer properly called President Obama. He’s back to being Senator Obama. That’s because whenever there’s an office that has only one holder at a time, only the current person is called by that title. The previous person defaults to being called the highest previous title ever held, so long as that title can belong to multiple persons. This is proper etiquette. It’s proper also to call them Mr. or Ms. or Mrs. So on Jan. 20, 2017, Obama becomes Senator Obama again.
I once got a letter read on-air by Brit Hume on this subject. I consulted Miss Manners. According to her, the POTUS and VPOTUS both revert to the highest title they had before serving as POTUS and VPOTUS.
With Trump, it would be “Mr. Trump.”
The living former Presidents would be Governor Carter, Ambassador Bush, Governor Clinton, Governor Bush, and Senator Obama. And calling ANY of them “Mr. Lastname” at any time is correct, both during and after their term as POTUS or VPOTUS.
It is NOT disrespectful of a President to call him “Mr. Lastname.”
It IS, however, idiotic, to call Abraham Lincoln “former President Abraham Lincoln.” Whatever happened to “the late Abraham Lincoln” or “the late President Lincoln”? (For those who haven’t been following the news.) Or, for those who HAVE been following the news, what’s wrong with “Abraham Lincoln”?
GWB was almost always called Mr. Bush, with derision, especially at White House press conferences. From 2001 to 2009, the word that came after president for Democrats was Clinton. We will see if the leftist press calls Trump Mr Trump or Mr. president.
My guess is that if he only answers to “Mr. President” about the second time, they will have learned to call him that.
I look forward to watching Trump’s White House press conferences. It took Obama a year to learn the names of the main press people. O would read from a list, then look around the room until he found a person beaming at him. Trump’s will be very different.
Oh so do I. I think the press will be schooled in very short order. I’ll be watching them all just for the show.
That’s probably where I read this. I was going to say it was from Miss Manners, but I couldn’t recall exactly. I’m sure I read it recently. Good work! I realized last night that Hillary would and should be Senator Clinton because there’s a current Secretary of State, which isn’t Hillary. There’s always a Secretary of State and only one person holds the job at a time, so all during the debates the media were incorrect to call her “Secretary Clinton”. Journalists usually will call the president by his title the first time mentioned and then revert to Mr. (or Mrs.), but some of them just use the last name after first pointing out the person’s title and first name one time.
I think Abraham Lincoln is sufficient, also, although with the lack of American history being taught in schools, maybe we should never presume people know who he is and that he was a president. Sad.
I think you’re on thin ice with the “Secretary” thing.
Notice, she is addressed as “Secretary” Clinton, but NOT “Secretary of State” Clinton. I.e., she is called by the “rank” she attained, but not by the full title, because the actual office is now occupied by another person.
To put it another way, she is “Secretary Clinton,” but she is “former Secretary of State Clinton.”
Sounds good. Thanks for the clarification.
But, for what it’s worth:
http://www.formsofaddress.info/former.html#128
” Former officials who hold a position of which there is more than one at a time — retired judges, retired ambassadors, retired generals, retired senators, retired bishops etc. — use their “title” in every situation for the rest of their lives.
But officials of which there there is only one at a time (The Governor, The President of the United States, The Speaker of the House, The Secretary of State, The Surgeon General ...) don’t continue use of their former title.
They use what they were entitled before taking the one-at-a-time position. E.g., Dwight Eisenhower in retirement went back to General Eisenhower. He was no longer The President”.
Same with Colin Powell ... he’s no longer addresses as “Secretary” ... he’s General Powell. ...”
Interesting.
I can see distinguishing between “Secretary” and “Senator,” since, although there are a dozen or more “secretaries” at a time, there’s only one “Secretary of State,” one “Secretary of the Interior.”
So, Hillary is Senator. Obama should be Senator, Bush41 should be Ambassador, Bush43 should be Governor, the Rapist should be Governor.
Only you and I can demand that these people start using their correct titles. This notion that a President is “President” for life is obnoxious.
And in Trump’s case, some, like the hosts on MSNBC, don’t even want to call him President ever. I did notice yesterday on CBS that they didn’t call Trump President-elect, just “Mr.” They didn’t say President-elect the first time, either. Just kept calling him Mr. We shall see after January 20 how it plays out. All they will do is further alienate people already alienated by their obvious bias.
Can’t get too upset about calling Trump “Mr. Trump,” since “President-elect” is not a job, and therefore not really a title.
Even after he is sworn in, it will be perfectly correct to call Trump “Mr. Trump.”
Rather than insistently, pointedly, calling Trump “President Trump,” real Americans should also call him “Mr. Trump.” Thus, the leftists’ calling him “Mr. Trump” will simply cease to mean anything.
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