Referring to people by their former job's title

[Exapno_Mapcase]

@Snnipe_70E

How times have changed. The first president that I heard refered to as Mr. was Mr Nixon and it was by people who did not respect him. It was a way of saying he was doing such a crappy job he did not deserve the title.

We’ve covered this in many threads. Every president as far back as we could trace newspaper records was called President X in the first reference and Mr. X thereafter. It’s the correct protocol and the common one. It definitely did not start with Nixon.

I have no way of knowing exactly how people you know behaved in conversation, of course, but I bet your memories aren’t completely accurate either.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

@Senegoid

I’ve wondered if it depends a lot on how pompous the former office holder wants to be, or how pompous a candidate’s supporters want to treat him.

When Jimmy Carter ran for prez in 1976, I don’t recall anybody ever called him Governor Carter – not even his own campaign staff (that I ever heard anyway). When Ronald Reagan ran for prez in 1980, his campaign staff ALWAYS referred to him as Governor Reagan, and of course everyone else followed suit (or at least all other Republicans did).

ETA: And when Bill Clinton ran for prez, I don’t recall ever hearing anyone refer to him as Governor Clinton either.

I do recall Jimmy Carter being referred to as “Governor Carter” during the 1976 debates against President Ford, even though he was a few years out of office by then, but don’t recall his staff calling him that. Bill Clinton was called “Governor Clinton” often during the 1992 campaign, because he was the incumbent Governor of Arkansas at the time. I agree with you about Reagan.

[CookingWithGas]

@3waygeek

Since when has that rule been in effect? I was explicitly taught the exact opposite – that once you become President, you are always referred to as such even after your term expires – in grade school. However, that was almost 40 years ago.

Although people do what you learned in grade school, it is not the correct protocol.

The problem with this rule of protocol, as is the case with all other rules of etiquette, is that there is no legal penalty for violating it, therefore it is violated rampantly. That does not mean it is not a rule.

Etiquette expert Judith Martin says in her 2003 book Star-spangled Manners: In which Miss Manners Defends American Etiquette (for a Change), says

@Miss Manners

After [Harry S. Truman] and his successor made the prescribed modest return to private life, the country collected a gaggle of former presidents all calling themselves and one another “Mr. President” at the same time. The etiquette rules that requires reserving the title for the incumbent and a former president’s reverting to the last title he held that was not unique, such as governor or general, was followed by former presidents General Washington through General Eisenhower. It is still on the protocol books, where it languishes unheeded by the public and the Messrs. President themselves.