Forgetting the Gates/Crowley brouhaha for a moment. It seems, according to Daniel Schor on NPR, that the Pres. told Crowley, on the phone,to :,,,just call me Barack".

Mr. Schor's take on this is just like mine. You are the Pres. and not his or Gates' buddy---there has to be a formality whether you like it or not. The proper address---as it is for Aides---"Mr. President".   

Involving a "Presidential" self into a local incident is bad enough but this and the nonsense about a beer get-together is over the top. Think about any past Pres. (Bush included who was, to me, a joke--a bad one)--take FDR----do you think anyone called him Frankie, Harry Truman--he knew the value of the office, Reagan was not Ronnie, and so it goes.

Bill Hahn