Far as I See it. She's the Ex-Governor of Alaska. Not Former.

I was reading some (more inane than informative) blog on the Times about Mrs. Palin. And I once again go to thinking about the distinction, if real, between using "ex" or "former" to describe an office holder's status. I have long believed that ex had some judgmental bite to it, where former merely relayed the truth of the current status.

I did google it today, and read a few bits. And I landed on this one, that sort of matches my mind. Ex vs. Former. "[e]x-colleague" suggests that you repudiated them in some way."

And that sort of explains why I think of her as the ex-governor, more than former. After all, she did not finish her term in the expected way. She quit. It might be a fair question whether it was truly under the cloud of scandal. However, she herself cited her ethics complaints as part of the reason she quit, so I think anyone arguing against that usage is really wasting their time.

Then again, lots of people are wasting their time celebrating Ronnie Reagan's birthday this weekend. As if he did any thing good for the country instead of what really happened. Remember the crash of the market in 2008? That's his vision, that was the result of Reaganomics writ large for all the world to see. And yet some folk see reason to celebrate the man? Crazy world, with crazy people.