What happened to the word "Ex-President?"

[raccoon]

When's the last time you heard a media ho MSM reporter use it?

When Ford died, it was "President Ford" this and that; when Bill Clinton is mentioned, it's "President Clinton", and with Jimmy, it's "President Carter."

Once upon a time, it was "ex-President Whoever."

[bryant69]

1. I don't recall that

I generally have heard President - just on the theory that once a President you are always a President?

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[raccoon]

8. I remember hearing it, but it was decades ago. nt

[Catherine Vincent]

2. All formers keep the title for life.

n/t

[redqueen]

3. Hm... I don't remember hearing 'ex-president'

anywhere but on SNL... but maybe you're right and I've forgotten...

:shrug:

[Lex]

4. Former President is what I usually hear.

Ex president sounds like they were fired.

[Graybeard]

10. Like ex-husband...

...it certainly has a negative connotation. Former Pres is preferable when writing about them but when addressing them directly they have been, are, and will always be President.

[northzax]

5. there are several titles you keep for life

even when you have left the position:

Ambassador, Senator, Judge, President are just a few.

[Lautremont]

6. Yeah, they always get called that, forever.

Which sucks, because forever we'll have to suffer wincing and flashbacks hearing the words "president bush"; but on the other hand, I do enjoy watching right-wing hack pundits wince themselves because they still have to refer to "President Clinton."

[Sweet Freedom]

7. I think ex-President is wrong

once you've been president, you always retain the title. However, I believe "former president" is acceptable.

[Double T]

9. Right NOW it needs to be EX-president bush..............

the sooner Congress makes 'EX' happen, the BETTER!!!

[Igel]

11. "Ex-President Whoever" is simply wrong.

"Ex-president Whoever" I can live with.

One's a title, the other's an epithet. There is no title "ex-president".

"Former" sounds like a dodge to avoid "ex-president", and often implies what the speaker has no intention of implying. One has to assume so real-world knowledge on the part of the reader.

What happened is that reporters finally read their own style manuals.

[WI_DEM]

12. I saw a clip of Walter Cronkite interviewing Lyndon Johnson in

1971, after he had left the presidency, and he usually asked the question in this way, "Mr. President, when did you...?" He was president and they are normally addressed in that way. However, in most newspaper stories I read they are usually referred to as "Former President so and so", not as "President so and so".

[raccoon]

13. "Former President" makes sense.

Ah, well, maybe I was having a premature senior moment.

[Gormy Cuss]

14. For POTUS, "President" is a title to be accorded the current office holder only.

This topic has been discussed here in the past. I'll let Miss Manners explain:
Former presidents not entitled to title

MISS MANNERS

My son ...wondered what one calls an ex-president. Surely not, "Mr. Ex-President."
Since it had never occurred to me to teach him the proper way to address an ex-president (I didn't know myself), I promptly went to my two (perhaps outdated) etiquette books, and both of them agreed that an ex-president is addressed as "Mr." as in "Mr. Carter." One said that very close friends or former staff sometimes use "Mr. President." Now, I am told that when he was recently interviewed on television, he was called "President Carter."

I have been told, also, that our ex-president likes to travel and pops up here and there, surprising people. Please let me know what Miss Manners thinks is the correct way to address a former president.

GENTLE READER

What do you mean, "what Miss Manners thinks"?
Who should be president is a matter on which the citizens are supposed to exercise their opinions. Etiquette is not.....

What Miss Manners can give you is the correct information. But it comes with a warning that most people not only don't know or believe it, but turn indignant with the notion that it is disrespectful.

This is because we suffer from title inflation. Our Founding Fathers, including the ones to whom this question applied, established American protocol to be simple and unpretentious - and thus antithetical to the modern taste.

Nevertheless, the rule is that titles pertaining to an office that only one person occupies at a time are not used after retirement. A former president can use a previously held, non-unique title, as the first one did by reverting to Gen. Washington in retirement, or the plain citizen's title of "Mr." The third president preferred to be known as Mr. Jefferson rather than Gov. Jefferson. Thus, the gentleman your son met would be addressed as Gov. Carter or Mr. Carter.

[raccoon]

15. Thanks, Gormy! nt