I winced, hard, when Friday's episode of Doctor Who featured its fictional American president referring to himself as "the President-elect of the United States." I suspect the line was intended to sound like the president was using his full and baroque title, along the lines of "Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith," but it doesn't work that way. "President-elect" is a precise title that refers only to someone who has won a presidential election but not yet been inaugurated. And if the guy we saw in this episode was "just" president-elect, he'd have had no actual authority to do any of the things he did in this episode -- that would have all been handled by the outgoing, incumbent president.
Anyway, Russell T. Davies should feel free to call me next time he needs a consult on American politics.
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