I agree with Mark Steyn...

...on avoiding American "titles of nobility":

Katrina, I’m with Kevin and the president in preferring “Mr. Romney” over “Governor Romney.” The primary debates were all “Governor”, “Senator” and “Mr. Speaker”, even though there wasn’t a single governor, senator, or speaker on the stage. What’s the point of a republic if a guy can serve one term in the House of Representatives in the early Seventies and be addressed as “Congressman” until he keels over half-a-century later? Turning offices into titles of nobility is, to my mind, even more unrepublican than having a bunch of marquesses and viscounts queening it up because “Senator”, “Governor” et al. are titles that by definition are in the gift of the people and, when the people are no longer willing to bestow said title or the office-holder declines to submit himself to their adjudication, the use thereof should cease.

Lest I be accused of being anti-American in respect of the above, I may add that, as a subject of Her Canadian Majesty, I think “Mr.” and “Mrs.” can be pretty cool in monarchies, too. Just about the only advice I ever had the temerity to offer Mrs. Thatcher was not to accept a peerage, because to my mind “Mrs. Thatcher” was a far greater title than anything the Sovereign could bestow.