The First Laddie

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Chris calling from Okinawa, Japan.

From Okinawa, Japan?

Hi, welcome, Chris.

Thanks. Hey, I’m calling with a question about what to call President Clinton if Senator Clinton is elected president.

Which Clinton are we talking about here?

Both.

So if Hillary is elected president…

Former President Clinton if the senator is elected.

So if Hillary is elected president, what do we call Bill?

Correct.

Well, November is a long way off.

I think there’s a chance they’ll just be calling him President Clinton,

Former President Clinton.

But you’re saying it’s going to be weird to go to a state event

And have them announced upon entrance as the president and the president Clinton.

The president’s Clinton?

Well, Chris, wait.

Because we call former presidents.

Do you say President’s Clinton?

Do you say Mr. And Mrs. President’s Clinton?

The Clintons?

The Clintons, that would be good.

Yeah.

Well, I’ve already seen people kind of mocking the fact that he would be, if she was elected, the first gentleman.

And, of course, that causes all sorts of snickering given his sordid history in the White House.

But a lot of governors’ husbands are called the first gentlemen.

Are they?

At the state level, yeah.

Chris, what do you think?

Well, you know, I’ve heard the first gentleman thing as well, of course.

And that makes sense, but it just doesn’t sound right to me.

And I think in the case of President Bill Clinton, there’s kind of something unique there in that he’s been president,

So we can just go on calling him President Clinton.

So why not just stick with that and leave the first gentleman title to some other guy who hasn’t been president and his wife is elected?

So you wouldn’t go with first laddie then. He was suggesting first laddie.

I saw that. And funny, but yeah, no, it probably won’t stick.

I think there’s another way out of this, though, Chris.

If you remember from your history studies, there was much discussion when Washington was elected, what to call him.

People proposed king and this and that, and he chose president.

He chose a title that was a little more suited to somebody who was running a company than somebody who was running a government.

You know, didn’t go for any of the traditional European names.

And I think that Bill Clinton actually is put in a position here where he can say what he prefers to be called.

And I think if he was a gentleman and he wanted to simplify things for everyone, including all of America and the press, he would say, just call me Mr. Clinton.

So President and Mr. Clinton?

Yes.

Is how you would say they’re entering the…

Yes.

I think that would totally work.

And I think that he could do that because he’s the one who can decide that the honorific isn’t necessary.

Absolutely. That makes a lot of sense.

And, you know, that’s probably why it never occurred to me.

Well, Chris, thank you so much for your…

Domi Arigato, and thank you so much for your call from Japan.

Hey, no problem. Thanks a lot.

All right. Bye-bye.

Bye now.

You know, Grant, I consulted Miss Manners on this a while back

When this possibility first came up,

And I liked what she said about the title First Lady.

She mentioned the fact that Jacqueline Kennedy didn’t like the title First Lady at all.

You know why?

Why?

She said, it makes me sound like a saddle horse.

First Lady.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

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