# How much respect should any President/politician get?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-respect-should-any-president-politician-get/510522>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [September 18, 2009, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-respect-should-any-president-politician-get/510522 "2009-09-18T00:56:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-respect-should-any-president-politician-get/510522/21 "2009-09-20T06:25:50Z")

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> [@Revenant\_Threshold](#):
>
> A President shouldn’t be accorded respect simply for being the President; earning it, perhaps, but not for being it.

Your statements do not jibe. (You pretend there’s a distinction: how does one get to \*be \*the president other than by \*earning \*it?)

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**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-respect-should-any-president-politician-get/510522/22 "2009-09-20T06:27:53Z")

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“Pretending” implies that i’m faking my opinion. Have I given this impression? I don’t mean to.

One can be the President simply by turning in a better performance than the other guy; it doesn’t necessarily have to be good. Your victory could be due to the success of your electioneering team, or of your party. Too, you can commit all kinds of contempt-inducing activities while President yet not be immediately ousted after having done them.

And beyond that, even if a President has earned the role, and is worthy of some amount of respect by their actions in doing so, they are not then owed _additional_ respect when they actually take on the office.

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