I think Emily would approve of President Obama’s manners

And now I am going to pause from all the Singapore related news to note that President Obama has lovely manners…

During the election last fall we were asked over and over again to consider whether we would like to have a beer with the candidates.  Well, here is a different twist…  are the President’s manners up to your standards?  Would you be embarrassed to have him dine at your table? or meet your friends?

Thanks to my mother and grandmother, and a love of my Emily Post Etiquette book (thanks Kat and Ross for giving me the new 17th edition), I place a high premium on manners.  It seems that our president does as well.  This is evident in an article entitled Mr. Manners: What Obama teaches us about Etiquette, which is in the 25 April 2009, edition of the Huffington Post.  It is a series of pictures with commentary by Anna Post, Emily’s great-great granddaughter.  I became aware of this article because of a link from Anna Post’s blog, What Would Emily Post Do.

Based exclusively on his manners (this is not a political comment), as represented in the slideshow on the Huffington Post website, I would be proud to include President Obama in my circle of friends.  I hope that I can comport myself as well as he does, showing respect and courtesy to the people I encounter in my everyday life.