President of Ireland - Thank you for gift note

[Irishkitty]

So, I have had the very great pleasure of meeting two of our fair Islands presidents.

The latest president I have yet to meet. Yet today, while searching through some files at work I came across a Thank You card from our current president.

Ladies and Gents...

It was pre-printed!!!

I could not tell if the signature was pre-printed or original, but... the shock it.

Do you think Public Figures can get away with pre-printed generic sentiments? 

[gorplady]

Yes. Given the amount of trinkets/cards/well wishes/baked goods/etc they receive, it would be a full-time job to personally respond to each and every single item with a handwritten note. You should be grateful if you receive a handwritten one, but to expect one is another thing entirely.

[Sharnita]

Absolutely.  They have massive numbers of people whith whom they correspond.  Preprinted are the only practical way to do it IMO.  If they weren't I'd wonder what other dutties they wre neglegting to write out their thank you cards.

[Irishkitty]

This is true, it would be nice enough for it to be hand signed. Not sure if it was (it looked so).
It was more a case of I saw this beautiful pre-printed Thank You card and my first (evil) thought was "hmm, I should post to e-hell" LOL
 

[sam]

my daughter class sent a letter to the queen for her jubilee.  They recieved a reply but it had no signiture on it at all no even an electronic one not even HRH at the bottom.  I thought it was awful. While I did not expect her to hand sign it obviously they could have taken a bit more time. These kids spent ages doing this for her and all they got was a preprinted thing that was done so it could have been sent to anyone for anything.

If it had of had HRH at the bottom it wouodnt have been so bad but the letter just kind of stopped.

[Calypso]

Unless my country had only 100 or so people in it  I think I'd be appalled if my president, or even his or her immediate staff, took the time to hand-write thank you notes.

[TootsNYC]

Miss Manners even (if I remember correctly) says this is acceptable for such a personage.

[Auntie Mame]

I look at this way, they can hand write thank you notes for every present they recieve, or they can run the country.  I prefer the latter personally 

[violinp]

I look at this way, they can hand write thank you notes for every present they recieve, or they can run the country.  I prefer the latter personally 

Exactly. I find it gracious that a person of that high ranking would bother to send a thank you note.

[CluelessBride]

To people who are gifting the president because he/she is the president: A pre-printed note or a note written by an aid is fine.

To people who are gifting the president because they happen to have a personal relationship with the president: A pre-printed note would be just as rude as it would be for anybody else.  Which is to say that if you have a problem with Joe Schmo sending a pre-printed note to his great aunt Sue to thank her for the wedding gift, then you should also have a problem with the president sending a pre-printed note to his/her great aunt Sue. 

Becoming president (or a doctor, or a lawyer, or a billionaire in charge of running a company that millions depend on, or just a busy person) doesn't excuse you from social niceties.  However, being someone who gets lots of "personal" correspondence from complete strangers does allow you to treat that "personal" correspondence differently (more business like - hence the acceptability of form letters) than true personal correspondence from people you actually have a relationship with.