# If Hillary wins, will she be addressed as "Mrs President" or "Ms President?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 7, 2008, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-hillary-wins-will-she-be-addressed-as-mrs-president-or-ms-president/432608 "2008-01-07T18:01:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2008, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-hillary-wins-will-she-be-addressed-as-mrs-president-or-ms-president/432608/41 "2008-01-08T22:28:30Z")
**Roadfood** : Judith Martin, a.k.a. Miss Manners, is a journalist in the Washington, D.C. area, with several decades of experience on Washington social events, including those frequented by political leaders. You need not accept her authority, as I said above, but to suggest that this subject is not within her purview shows an ignorance of her body of work. (More info here: [Wikipedia on Judith Martin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Martin)) I wouldn’t mind seeing a cite from a better authority, myself. For what it’s worth, protocol and etiquette are not unrelated. They are sets of formalized rules of human interaction ultimately based on customary behavior in a given society or segment thereof. One is for social functions and the other for government functions. I like the way you trivialized the whole concept of etiquette with the fork example, though. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2008, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-hillary-wins-will-she-be-addressed-as-mrs-president-or-ms-president/432608/42 "2008-01-08T22:39:13Z")
[QUOTE=friedo] Or Madame Justice, or Madame Speaker, or Madame Chairwoman. (Which always seemed redundant to me. Why not just go with Your Chairness? Your Sittingness, perhaps? Ooh, I know: Your Comfiness.) [/QUOTE] It’s _Madame Chairman._ The suffix “-man” is the same suffix at the end of “woman.” ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2008, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-hillary-wins-will-she-be-addressed-as-mrs-president-or-ms-president/432608/43 "2008-01-08T22:47:32Z")
[QUOTE=alphaboi867] Personally if I were introduced to Clinton I’d address him as Mr Clinton or Sir. I agree with Dr Drake that only someone actually serving as president is should be addressed as “Mr/Madam President”. [/QUOTE] I’m in the same boat. I _might_ call him “Bubba” if I’m feeling punchy. But he is a private citizen now, & “Mr Clinton” is most appropriate. As to the OP, I was going to vote for “Miss President,” using the Southron usage. ---
**Author:** ![Hedda\_Rosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hedda_rosa/32/1204_2.png) [@Hedda\_Rosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hedda_Rosa)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2008, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-hillary-wins-will-she-be-addressed-as-mrs-president-or-ms-president/432608/44 "2008-01-08T22:52:09Z")
[QUOTE=foolsguinea] It’s _Madame Chairman._ The suffix “-man” is the same suffix at the end of “woman.” [/QUOTE] [Womyn](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Womyn)…so…could we use Madame Chairmyn? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2008, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-hillary-wins-will-she-be-addressed-as-mrs-president-or-ms-president/432608/45 "2008-01-08T22:57:02Z")
You know Rush Limbaugh and Michelle Malkin and all of those idiots are going to be referring to him as the First Shady, don’t you? ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2008, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-hillary-wins-will-she-be-addressed-as-mrs-president-or-ms-president/432608/46 "2008-01-08T23:13:41Z")
[QUOTE=Great Dave] I’ve never seen a purple cow, either. [/QUOTE] They’re all the same color in the dark. ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2008, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-hillary-wins-will-she-be-addressed-as-mrs-president-or-ms-president/432608/47 "2008-01-08T23:24:25Z")
[QUOTE=Cervaise] They’re all the same color in the dark. [/QUOTE] What’s it _doing_ in the dark with the cows, we wonders… yes… we wonders, preeeecious… ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2008, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-hillary-wins-will-she-be-addressed-as-mrs-president-or-ms-president/432608/48 "2008-01-09T00:54:26Z")
According to [post=9121079]this thread[/post] where the topic of how to refer to the husband of President Hillary Clinton was discussed, Bill Clinton should properly be addressed as “The Honorable Bill Clinton”, not as Governor Clinton or Former President Clinton. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2008, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-hillary-wins-will-she-be-addressed-as-mrs-president-or-ms-president/432608/49 "2008-01-09T09:29:20Z")
This puts me in mind of a whole (short) series of poems. From the fortune files: ```auto I never saw a purple cow I never hope to see one But I can tell you anyhow I'd rather see than be one. -- Gellett Burgess I've never seen a purple cow I never hope to see one But from the milk we're getting now There certainly must be one -- Odgen Nash Ah, yes, I wrote "The Purple Cow" I'm sorry now I wrote it But I can tell you anyhow I'll kill you if you quote it. -- Gellett Burgess, many years later ``` [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-hillary-wins-will-she-be-addressed-as-mrs-president-or-ms-president/432608.md?page=2)