The Presidency

Section 1
●The President’s Description
 The President’s Roles
●Chief of State
○Ceremonial head of the government of the United States
●Chief Executive
○Vested with “Executive Power,” given by the constitution
●Chief Administrator
○Director of the Federal Government
■Employs nearly 2.7 million civilians
●Chief Diplomat
○Main architect of American foreign policy and the nation’s
chief spokesperson to the rest of the world
●Commander in Chief
○Controls the nation’s 1.4 million men and women in uniform
 The President’s Roles
●Chief legislator
○Main architect of its public policies
○Helps to initiate, request, demand certain actions by
the Congress
●Not Stated in the Constitution
○Chief of Party
■acknowledged leader of the political party
○Chief Citizen
■Representative of all the people
■“A place of moral leadership” FDR
●President plays all these roles simultaneously,
and can not isolate themselves to one role over
 Formal Qualifications
●Constitution puts some requirements into
becoming a president
○Must be a “natural born citizen”
○Be at least 35 years of age
■youngest ever elected was Theodore Roosevelt at the age of
42 and Ronald Reagan elected at the age of 69
○Must have lived in the United States for at least 14 years

●Nearly 100 million people in the United States

meet these requirements, thus leading to
informal qualifications
 The President’s Term
●Ultimately at the Constitutional
Convention, a term limit of 4-years
○Until the 1951 amendment, there was no limit
to the number of terms a president could serve
●Still fights today over the legitimacy of the
2-term limit
○Lame-duck president, or safeguard against
“executive tyranny?”
○How about a single six-year term?
 Pay and Benefits
●Initially it was $25,000, however today it is
$400,000
●Also provided a $50,000 expense allowance
●Other benefits
○132-room mansion set on an 18.3 acre estate in the
heart of the nation’s capital (White House)
○Suite of offices and a large staff
○Fleet of automobiles
■lavish Air Force One plane, including other planes and
helicopters
○Camp David resort getaway in the Mountains in
Maryland
○Finest Medical, Dental, and other health care
 Section 2
●Presidential Succession and the Vice
Presidency
The Constitution Succession
●Presidential Succession
○Scheme by which a presidential vacancy is
filled
○Originally not provided by the Constitution
■However signed into the Constitution with the 15th
amendment
○Presidential Succession Act of 1947
■the order of succession following the Vice President
 Presidential Disability
●Previously no provision for dealing with a
disabled President
○Check and Balance between Executive and
Legislative, in order to with a disabled
President
 The Vice Presidency
●Importance of the Office
○Given two duties:
■Preside over the Senate
■Help decide the question of Presidential disability
○However, generally a job with little or no major
duties
■“Heartbeat away from the Presidency”
○Blame for lack of duties is based on how
candidate is selected
■Balance the Ticket
■chooses a running mate based on characteristics that help
 The Vice Presidency (con’t)
●Vice Presidential Vacancy
○Vice Presidency has been vacated 18 times
●The Vice President Today
○Vice President Dick Cheney is widely
regarded as the most influential Vice
Presidents ever
■Interesting fact, no matter what the circumstances,
the President cannot fire the Vice President
 Section 3
●Presidential Selection: The Framers’ Plan
 Original Provisions
●During the Constitutional Convention, struggle
over whether to have president selected by
direct vote or Congress
●Compromise became the selection of
Presidential Electors
○A person elected by the voters to represent them in
making a formal selection of the Vice President and
President
○Each Elector would cast two electoral votes
■Plurality would select President, and Vice President the
runner-up
 The Rise of Parties
●Electoral college
○The group of people (electors) chosen from each State
and the District of Columbia, to formally select the
President and Vice President
●The Election of 1800
○Electoral college tie, ultimately leading to Congress
selecting the President
○Created new elements
■Party nominations for the Presidency and Vice Presidency
■Nomination of candidates for Presidential Electors pledged to
vote for their party’s Presidential ticket
■Automatic casting of the electoral votes in line with those
 The Rise of Parties (Con’t)
●12th Amendment
○Passed in 1804, it changed the electoral
college system, to where different ballots
would be cast for President and Vice
President
 Section 4
●Presidential Nominations
 The Role of Conventions
●Used extensively since the 1832 election
●Convention Arrangements
○Built almost entirely by the political parties
○Generally the party-out-of-power has their
convention first and the party-in-power three
weeks later
The Role of Conventions (Con’t)
●Apportionment of Delegates
○The State party’s delegates is generally based
on the State’s electoral votes
■However, complex formulas eventually decide the
delegate count
●Selection of Delegates
○Two campaigns… for nomination and
presidential candidate races
○Generally political parties allow state parties
to decide delegates
 Presidential Primaries
●Presidential Primary
○An election in which a party’s voters choose some or
all of a state party organization’s delegates to their
party’s national convention and/or express a
preference among various contenders for their party’s
presidential nomination
■Democrats have Superdelegates, who are selected based on
power positions in the Democratic party
●History of the Presidential Primary
○Started in 1900’s, rose and fall in popularity, and has
risen again
Presidential Primaries (Con’t)
●Primaries Today
○Since most states have the decision power, the
primaries are a patch work
○Most states prefer to be toward the front of the
primary season
■Today we have “Super Tuesday”
●Proportional representation
○Winner-take-all
■candidate who wins plurality, wins all the available delegates
■Generally a Republican preference
○Proportional Representation
■Any candidate who wins at least 15 percent of the votes cast
in a primary gets the number of that state’s delegates in their
share
Presidential Primaries (Con’t)
●Evaluation of the Primary
○Though confusing, generally force “knock-
down, drag-out” fights for party out of power
■Due to there be no real party leader
○Not common for party in power, due to
influence of incumbent President
■Not true for George W. Bush
●Reform Proposals
○Many suggestions for changes, but very
unlikely to take place
The Caucus-Convention Process
●Iowa the most common state with the
Caucus
 The National Convention
●Meetings at which delegates vote to pick their
presidential and vice-presidential candidates
●Meets three different goals
○Name the party’s presidential and vice-presidential
candidates
○Bring the various factions and the leading
personalities in the party together in one place
○Adopt the party’s platform
■formal statement of basic principles, stands on major policy
matters, and objectives for the campaign and beyond
The National Convention (con’t)
●The First Two Days
○Keynote address is given on first day
■delivered by one of the party’s most accomplished orators
○Second day the platform is adopted
●The Last Two Days
○Third day is spent to nominating the presidential
candidate
○Fourth day is devoted to nominating the vice-
presidential candidate
■leading to the president candidates acceptance speech
 Who is Nominated
●Political Experience
○Generally the most electable candidate is
nominated
●Other Characteristics
○Generally Protestants, from larger states,
pleasant and healthy appearance, an
attractive family, etc.
 Section 5
●The Election
 The Electoral College Today
●People do not vote directly for a
Presidential candidate, they vote to elect
presidential electors
●Choosing Electors
○Electors chose by popular vote in every state
○Chosen on a winner-take-all manner
■Some states have the names of the electors on the
ballot
 The Electoral College Today
(con’t)
●Counting Electoral Votes
○Electors meet on the same day, in each of their
respective state capitals
■After the vote, it is signed and sealed, then sent to the
president of the Senate
■Formal election takes place on January 6th
■However, most people know the next President by the
November election
■Must win at least 270 electoral votes
■If there is a tie, the election is sent to the House of
Representatives
Flaws in the Electoral College
●First Major Defect
○That the winner of the popular vote will not
win the presidency
■2000 election of George W. Bush
■Bush lost the popular vote by 537,179 votes, but won the
electoral college with 271 electoral votes
○Thus a distorted view of the popular vote
 Flaws in the Electoral College
(Con’t)
●The Second Major Defect
○No requirement for electors to vote for the
candidate that carried their state
■One elector from Washington, D.C., did not vote in
2000 election… a vote for Gore
●The Third Major Defect
○Presidential election being decided by the
House of Representatives, due to the majority
of electoral votes not being met (270 votes)
 Proposed Reforms
●The District Plan
○The electors would be chosen in each state in
the same way as members of Congress
■Possibly take away the winner-take-all problem
■Still does not answer the inability of the popular
vote to decisively win the electoral vote
 Proposed Reforms (Con’t)
●The Proportional Plan
○Win electors based on the percentage of popular vote
in each state the candidate wins
■cures winner-take-all
○Possibly destroy the two-party system
■also increases the odds that the decision would be made by
the House of Representatives
○Some argue, then the number of electors to win
should be lowered to plurality, rather than majority
 Proposed Reforms (Con’t)
●Direct Popular Election
○Each vote would count equally in the national result
○However, multiple issues with the proposal
■Small states would lose their say
■Possibly weaken the federal system of government
■States are no longer represented
■Increase likelihood of voter fraud
○Some parts of the electorate would lose
representation
 Proposed Reforms (Con’t)
●The National Bonus Plan
○Proposal for electing a President by which the winner
of the popular vote would receive a bonus of 102
electoral votes in addition to his or her state based
Electoral College votes. If no one received at least 321
electoral votes, a run-off election would be held
■Not a likely plan

●Electoral College Supporters

○Any of the proposed reforms could have unintended
consequences
○Identifies the winner quickly