Should president be capitalized when referring to the leader of the U.S.?

Factual Questions
1

Crap. Hampsters ate my OP. Here it is :

I distinctly remember English teachers in grade school and on telling me that I was supposed to capitalize the word “president” when referring to the President of the U.S., but not when referring to, say, the president of a company.

Is this rule still (or was it ever) valid? It seems like nowadays I see the word capitalized about as often as not. I see it in newspapers, magazines, and even here on the SDMB, where many people pride themselves on good grammar and spelling.

I know the English language is constantly evolving. Was this an official change that I missed or did people just sort of forget about it?

2

If you are speaking of a specific person it is capitalized, doesn’t matter if the person is the president of a nation or a company.

See here:

“In the first, the title the President is capitalized because it is a title referring to a specific person; in the second, there is no capital, because the word president does not refer to anyone in particular.”

3

<copyeditor hat on>

This is a style choice. Do it one way or the other, but be consistent within a document.

<copyeditor hat off>

4

Scarlett is right, but the usual rule is you capitalise the title if it comes before the name, and use lower case if not. Thus:

President George W. Bush
George W. Bush, president of the United States

This general rule applies to any title:

Senator Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton, senator from New York

Chairman Mao Tse-Tung
Mao Tse-Tung, chairman of the Chinese Communist Party

5

Thank you. Makes sense now.