<p>Come on, you knew (and worked) for Mrs / Senator / her honorable Clinton 35 years ago. That counts.</p>
<p>The best I can say is that I met President Clinton when he was campaigning in NH. My S was in first grade, so that was only 15 or so years ago. I can tell you that his hair is a lot whiter now. </p>
<p>Most people read newspapers, (even if they are online versions). What is “reported” and the truth may not be one in the same, but whatever. Most of us do not have the opportunity to get information directly from the horse’s mouth. Undoubtedly, we sometimes get the information from the other end of the horse, even from his (or her) barnyard acquaintances. :D</p>
<p>Come on, you knew (and worked) for Mrs / Senator / her honorable Clinton 35 years ago.</p>
<p>Means little…by the way I didn’t work for her if anything she worked for me</p>
<p>I do however have a picture of the two of us holding hands in front of the White House Christmas tree….it impresses the uninformed and my mother……</p>
<p>When I refer to President Bush as GWB it is to differentiate between him and his father. Too many people can’t tell from context which is which and it is certainly easier than typing out ‘the present President’ or ‘the current Mr. Bush’ all the time. Considering that they themselves use 41 and 43 to describe each other, initials aren’t that bad. </p>
<p>And as this is the United States of America, it is perfectly proper to refer to the occupant of the White House, past or present, with the title of Mister. When Washington was president, it was established that no greater honorific was necessary – no honorable, no excellency, no ‘my lord’. (There was a brief attempt to call his residence the Presidential Palace but it didn’t fly – sorry, John Adams!). They called him General Washington, 'cause that what’s he preferred (and if Eisenhower wanted to use it, I’m sure that was fine too), but the rest are Mister. Past presidents retain the title. There is no ex-President title in the USA though writers use ‘former president’ sometimes. </p>
<p>If you want to be super-copy-editor-man, you would use President Bush in the first instance of referral, but after that, Mr. Bush is correct. Face to face, you would call him Mr. President but not when you are referring to him in the third person. You would not type 'After his meeting with Gonzales, Mr. President went on a bike ride."</p>
<p>“The Honorable” is the standard term for addressing any elected official. (That’s 'cause, often enough, they are not, but it blends in well with the rest of their Orwellian doublespeak.)</p>
<p>Honorable is correct only when you are addressing a letter to them or introducing them publicly. Not if you are speaking directly to or about them or writing about them in a news article. Of course, if you stand up in the House and start talking about ‘my right honorable collegue across the aisle,’ it’s a very polite sneer, sort of shorthand for ‘will you look at this idiot now…’ By the way, that’s not ‘right’ in the political sense but in the King’s English sense because calling a member of the Congress or legislature ‘the right honorable Mr. Whosis’ comes from the Parliament. </p>
<p>The term ‘Mr. President’ is actually a translation from the French “Monsieur Le President.'” Prior to the writing of the Constitution, no other nation used the title president for the head of state, only for the head of various governing or corporate bodies. But as I said, that’s a term only for direct address…the opposite of honorable. </p>
<p>I wonder what I did with my old Secretary’s Handbook…it told you how to address a letter to everybody from your local selectman to the Pope.</p>