First Gentleman? First Husband? First Laddie?
Post your responses here.
First Philanderer?
Special envoy to the middle east.
Officially, “First Gentleman” seems likely. Unofficially, he’ll be “First Dude”.
On a related note: will they get new Secret Service nicknames or have they kept the old ones?
Seriously for a mmoment, were he not an ExPOTUS himself it would be probably something innocuous like First Spouse or Host of the White House.
“Big Ol’ Dawg” would not be bad. Hoochie-Hound-in-Chief might be a wee bit too much.
He will have no title. Michelle Obama has no title. Americans have gotten accustomed to calling the president’s wife “First Lady”, but that is honorary. Americans have also gotten accustomed to regarding the husband to be the head of household, and unless specified otherwise, that de facto assumption is presumed to be in force.
Joachim Sauer is simply the husband of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He follows his own career as a research chemist, and does not feel obliged to set that aside for luncheons at the chancellor’s residence.
Historically, the First Lady in the USA has been a full-time president’s wife, limited outside to making politically correct dabblings in media-visible non-profit affairs. It should surprise no-one if Mr. Clinton excuses himself from that role, since that’s what American husbands do. There is no “Men’s Auxiliary” for the husbands of female members of American country clubs or professional associations.
It’s not entirely honorary. For most of the twentieth century, the First Lady has had an office, budget, and staff within the Executive Office of the President.
That’s at the discretion of the current POTUS, though, and they can call themselves whatever they want.
To the extent that “First Lady” has any official meaning, it’s in the rules of social precedence, which were written at a time when it was assumed that a woman’s status followed from the status of her husband. Those rules have been adapted as needed, of course, but mostly on a case-by-case basis as needed, not in a general way. So I’m not sure that there’s any correct answer.
I suppose that the best answer, if we’re to keep the concept of status-by-marriage at all, is to consider both spouses in a marriage to have equal social status, as determined by whichever one has the highest inherent status. By this standard, Hillary would have the status of President, the highest in our nation, and Bill, by virtue of being married to her, would also have that status, and thus would have higher status than any man in the US. So yes, Bill would then be First Gentleman. Which he also was, strictly speaking, in 1993-2001, and similarly, Hillary would, upon her election, again be First Lady, by virtue of having status higher than any other woman.
Of course, even this falls down when you consider the case of gay marriage. If one had, say, a male President married to another man, then you’d have two men, both of equal social status, and both higher than that of any other man. Are they both First Gentleman? Tied-for-first-Gentleman? Or maybe marriage doesn’t confer completely equal social status, with the spouse of the high-status person having status just an epsilon lower than the high-status person themself, in which case the husband of a male President would be the Second Gentleman.
Or, of course, we can forget about the official meaning entirely (most of the nation already has, anyway), and just call Bill (or any other hypothetical Presidential consort) whatever we like. Analogy with “First Lady” would make him “First Gentleman”, but “First Dude” is likely to catch on anyway.
Probably what she called him when going over the rules after the Lewinsky mess.
“First, dick…”
Anyone want to bet his entire official staff will be male… at the discretion of the POTUS, of course. Man, the longer you think this situation through the funnier it gets. It’s not just the first woman becoming President, but a nearly Pythonesque tangle of history.
I’m pretty sure they will get new nicknames as their old ones are known. Bills’ will probably be “Cigar” and Hillarys’ will probably be “Benghazi”.
I’ll not bet against that.
President and Former President Clinton.
(For the record I hate the concept of political dynasties in the US. I believe Hillary is the second worst candidate that could have been chosen, and the republicans rose to the occasion by nominating possibly the worst presidential candidate since John C. Breckinridge.)
Well, that’s not confusing or anything. (/fx Daffy Duck)
Secret Service Agent, 3:00 a.m. (urgently) “President Clinton?”
From both sides of the bed: “Yes?”
I think if you were to list 20 Democratic candidates, HRC would rank well among them. Her family baggage pulls her ranking down more than anything else.
But no, she wouldn’t be my first choice, either, but especially given the alternative “we coulda done worse.”
First consort?
First sax?
Following the precedent set by the two President from the Bush family, it will be President Clinton the Elder and President Clinton the Younger.
Personally, I’ll call them Hill and Bill.
Kind of a digression here, but it occurred to me that our first African American President will (I hope) be followed by our first Estrogen American President.
About time, too, IMO.
applause
Technically even former presidents still get called President Soandso, normally. So it will be President Clinton… and Hillary.
I don’t know, but in conversation with a friend some time ago I said that if Trump is elected it would be fitting to refer to his wife as Miss America rather than First Lady.