For any President you choose, how do you think his closest advisors address(ed) him in private? Do you think every VP, Chief of Staff, Secretary of State, etc., always calls the President “Mr. President” or “Sir” even in late-night Oval Office work sessions? Or was there a President you can see telling his inner circle to drop the formality when the cameras are off and the staff is gone?
I’m really just looking for frivolous speculation for a boring week at work, but if you have a cite from someone’s memoir or something, awesome.
Based on no evidence whatsoever, I imagine Obama is addressed as Mr. President by everyone in the administration at all times. Even when they’re having a beer and complaining about the Republicans, I just don’t see Biden calling him “Barack.” Obama seems kind of cool and distant. (Although, apparently, Michelle Obama asks Secret Service agents to call her by her first name.)
On the other hand, I recall reading somewhere that Gore had a fair amount of latitude to challenge Clinton. I can’t find it now, but ISTR reading about some cabinet meeting where Gore barked at Clinton to “keep your eye on the ball” or something similar. So I can almost see him calling Clinton by his first name in private, at least before their relationship soured in their second term.
And, I imagine that Kennedy probably allowed his Attorney General to call him “Jack” when no one else was around.
Did any of the Nixon tapes capture anyone calling him anything other than Mr. President or Sir?
If The West Wing has taught us anything, it’s that everyone calls the President “Mr. President” at all times. Except his family.
FWIW, I hate that the Vice President refers to the President as “Barack” in public. As in, “Barack and I have always cared about America’s flour producers…”
Hmm. I haven’t heard him doing that. That makes me question my opinion that Biden calls him “Mr. President” in private. And I agree that it is pretty poor form.
I can’t imagine the aides who play basketball with him calling him “Mr. President” on the court. I also think Biden probably calls him Barack in private, a throwback to when they knew each other as Senators.
Supposedly, when Kennedy was inaugurated, his inner circle offered him their congratulations, calling him “Jack”. His brother Bobby, the new Attorney General then offered his congratulations, rather pointedly calling him “Mr. President”.
We once spent a Linguistics class analysing a conversation between a President and a close friend of his who was a very senior television executive (I want to say Ted Turner, but I’m not sure that’s right). The TV exec was giving the President advice on how to look his best on camera. Although it was a friendly chat, his speech to the President was noticeably more formal than the President’s speech to him, and I think he called him ‘sir’. I cant remember which President it was, but I think it was from a while ago, maybe Nixon or Johnson. People were more formal back then, so maybe it has changed.
I have no direct personal experience, but I suspect that close advisers do address Obama as “Mr President”, while people similarly close to the British PM would call him “David”. In Australia, I can’t imagine anyone saying “Madame Prime Minister”: the most formal that she would get is “Ms Gillard”, but most people would just say “Julia”.
I wonder how hard you have to foul him before the Secret Service tases you. Maybe the Secret Service should ref the game, in their suits and shades.
Off topic, many years ago I read about a great pool player in the USSR who was invited to meet Stalin. Stalin wanted to play a game of pool. The guest started sweating bullets, trying to decide if he should run the table on Stalin, or throw the game, which Stalin would probably be wise to. I think the guy ended up playing his best and Stalin showed good sportsmanship by not sending him to a gulag.
Nice!
I wonder how it was with the first few Presidents. After working for years together to design the government, and in some cases fighting alongside each other, were the Founders more familiar with each other? Or since people were just generally more formal back then, was there even more formalilty in the way the addressed Washington, for example?
I saw a Frontline bio on Obama during the election run-up and a lot of his old friends called him Barry, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he goes by Barry behind closed doors.
I’ve read, I forget where, about someone doing the 18th-century equivalent of slapping Washington on the back and going “hey, Georgie!” Washington did not react in a remotely friendly manner.
If it was me, I’d call him Barack. To me it would be bizarre to call someone you’re on close terms with, “Mr. President”. Actually I wouldn’t call him that even on the not-especially-close terms we’re on now.
