The
President of the United States of America is the
head of state and
head of government of the
United States and is the highest political office in United States by influence and recognition. The President is at the head of the
executive branch of the
federal government, whose role is to enforce national law as given in the
Constitution and written by
Congress.
Article Two of the Constitution establishes the President as
commander-in-chief of the
armed forces and enumerates powers specifically granted to the President, including the power to sign into law or
veto bills passed by both houses of Congress. The President also has the power to create a
cabinet of advisers and to grant
pardons or reprieves. Finally, with the "
advice and consent" of the
Senate, the President is empowered to make
treaties and appoint federal officers,
ambassadors, and federal
judges, including Justices of the
Supreme Court. As with officials in the other branches of the United States government, the Constitution restrains the President with a set of
checks and balances designed to prevent any individual or group from taking absolute power.
The President is elected indirectly through the United States Electoral College to a four year term, with a limit of two terms imposed by the Twenty-second Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1951. Under this system, each state is allocated a number of electoral votes, equal to the size of the state's delegation in both houses of Congress combined. The District of Columbia is also granted electoral votes, per the Twenty-third Amendment to the Constitution. Voters in nearly all states choose a presidential candidate through the plurality voting system, who then receives all of that state's electoral votes. A simple majority of electoral votes is needed to become President; if no candidate receives that many votes, the election is thrown to the House of Representatives, which votes by state delegation.
Since the adoption of the Constitution, forty-two individuals have been elected or succeeded into the presidency, the first being George Washington, serving fifty-five four-year terms altogether. Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms and is counted as both the 22nd and the 24th president. Because of this, all presidents after the 23rd have their official listing increased by one. Current President George W. Bush, the forty-second person to be elected, or succeed into the office of President and forty-third President, was inaugurated on January 20, 2001 to a first term and on January 20, 2005 to a second. His second term expires at noon on January 20, 2009, after which he will be succeeded by the president-elect from the 2008 presidential election.
The White House in Washington, D.C. serves as the official place of residence for the President; he is entitled to use its staff and facilities, including medical care, recreation, housekeeping, and security services. One of two Boeing VC-25 aircraft, which are extensively modified versions of Boeing 747-200B airliners, serve as long distance travel for the President, and are referred to as Air Force One while the president is on board.[1] A salary of $400,000, along with other benefits, is paid to the President annually.[2]
From the middle of the twentieth century, the United States' status as a superpower has led the American President to be dubbed "the most powerful person on earth" and he has become one of the world's most well-known and influential public figures. The official presidential anthem is "Hail to the Chief"; preceded by "ruffles and flourishes", it is primarily played to announce the President at state functions.[3]
Origin
The Treaty of Paris (1783) left the United States independent and at peace but with an unsettled governmental structure. The Second Continental Congress had drawn up Articles of Confederation in 1777, describing a permanent confederation but granting to the Congress—the only federal institution—little power to finance itself or to ensure that its resolutions were enforced. In part this reflected the anti-monarchy view of the Revolutionary period, and the new American system was explicitly designed to prevent the rise of an American tyrant to replace the British King.
George Washington, the first American President under the American Constitution (1789–97).
However, during the economic depression due to the collapse of the continental dollar following the Revolutionary War, the viability of the American government was threatened by political unrest in several states, efforts by debtors to use popular government to erase their debts, and the apparent inability of the Continental Congress to redeem the public obligations incurred during the war. The Congress also appeared unable to become a forum for productive cooperation among the States encouraging commerce and economic development. In response a Constitutional Convention was convened, ostensibly to reform the Articles of Confederation but that subsequently began to draft a new system of government that would include greater executive power while retaining the checks and balances thought to be essential restraints on any imperial tendency in the office of the President.
Individuals who presided over the Continental Congress during the Revolutionary period and under the Articles of Confederation had the title "President of the United States in Congress Assembled", often shortened to "President of the United States". The office had little distinct executive power. With the 1788 ratification of the Constitution, a separate executive branch was created (President of the United States).
The President's executive authority under the Constitution, tempered by the checks and balances of the judicial and legislative branches of the federal government, was designed to solve several political problems faced by the young nation and to anticipate future challenges, while still preventing the rise of an autocrat over a nation wary
Qualification, disqualification and common practice
Article Two of the Constitution sets the principal qualifications to be eligible for election as President. A Presidential candidate must:
- be a natural-born citizen of the United States;
- be at least thirty-five years old;
- have been a permanent resident in the United States for at least fourteen years.
Additionally, the Constitution disqualifies some people from the Presidency. Under Article One of the United States Constitution, the Senate has the option, upon conviction, of disqualifying impeached individuals from holding other federal offices, including the Presidency.[4] Under the Twenty-Second Amendment, no one can be elected President more than twice. The Twenty-Second Amendment also specifies that anyone who serves more than two years as President or Acting President, of a term for which someone else was elected President, can only be elected President once. Under the Twelfth Amendment a person who is no longer eligible to be President may not be Vice President either.
Foreign-born Americans at the time the Constitution was adopted were also eligible to become President, provided they met the age and residency requirements.
The United States Government was non-partisan prior to 1792, so the Constitution says nothing about political parties. From 1796 to the Civil War, it was common for political parties to fracture and put forward more than one candidate. The classic example is the 1824 election, in which political parties officially played no role because all of the candidates were from the same party. This also was the only election in which the recipient of the most Electoral College votes (Andrew Jackson) did not become President (as he did not have a majority). The election was then decided by the United States House of Representatives, which elected John Quincy Adams instead.
The Civil War brought home how dangerous political fracture can be for the nation, with the result that the two largest parties at the time — Democratic and Republican — remade themselves into broad coalitions of liberals and conservatives. Consequently, all presidents since the Civil War have been nominees of one of these two major political parties.
Nevertheless, there have been seven important third-party candidates since the Civil War:
- In the 1892 election, James Weaver (Populist Party) won four states, taking twenty-two electoral votes
- In the 1912 election, third-party candidate, former Republican and former President Theodore Roosevelt (Progressive Party a.k.a. "Bull Moose Party") actually bested the losing major party candidate, taking six states and eighty-eight electoral votes, while sitting President William Howard Taft (Republican) took two states and eight electoral votes—and Democrat Woodrow Wilson took the White House.
- In the 1924 election, Robert M. La Follette, Sr. (Progressive) took one state, with thirteen electoral votes.
- In the 1948 election, Strom Thurmond (Dixiecrat) won four states, taking thirty-nine electoral votes
- In the 1960 election, Harry F. Byrd (Democrat) did not run for President but received fifteen electoral votes from three states. All eight of Mississippi's electors voted for Byrd as President and Strom Thurmond as Vice President; six of Alabama's electors did likewise, while one faithless Republican elector from Oklahoma cast his votes for Byrd as President and for Barry Goldwater as Vice President.
- In the 1968 election, Alabama Governor George Wallace (American Independent Party) won five states, taking forty-six electoral votes.
- In the 1992 election, Independent candidate Ross Perot took nearly 19% of the popular vote at the national level, but he won no states and thus received no electoral votes.
In 2005, two amendments to the Constitution of the United States were proposed to permit persons having been citizens of the United States for many years but not being natural-born citizens to hold the Office of President. Neither bill got any further action beyond that year. H.J.RES.2, introduced on January 4, 2005, sponsored by Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI-14) and cosponsored by Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA-27), would require 20 years of citizenship for naturalized Americans to be eligible to hold the Office of President.[5] H.J.RES.42, introduced on April 14, 2005, sponsored by Rep. Vic Snyder (D-AR-2) and cosponsored by Christopher Shays (R-CT-4), would require 35 years of citizenship for naturalized Americans to be eligible to hold the offices of President and Vice President.[6]
Finally, while they are not in any way requirements:
Electoral College
Voters in each of the states elect a president on Election Day, set by law as the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, once every four years; elections for other offices at all levels of government also occur on this date. Each state holds a number of electoral votes that correspond to electors in the Electoral College. Tickets of presidential and vice presidential candidates are shown on the ballot; each vote for the tickets actually corresponds to a vote for a slate of electors chosen by the candidates' political party. In most states, the ticket that wins the most votes in a state wins all of that state's electoral votes, and thus has their slate of electors chosen to vote in the Electoral College. Maine and Nebraska do not use this method, opting instead to give two electoral votes to the statewide winner and one electoral vote to the winner of each Congressional district. Neither state has split electoral votes between candidates as a result of this system in modern elections. In any case, the winning set of electors meets at their state's capital on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, a few weeks after the election, to vote, and sends a vote count to Congress.
The vote count is opened by the sitting vice president, acting in his capacity as President of the Senate, and read aloud to a joint session of the incoming Congress, which was elected at the same time as the president. Members of Congress can object to any state's vote count, provided that the objection is supported by at least one member of each house of Congress. A successful objection will be followed by debate; however, objections to the electoral vote count are rarely raised.
In the event that no candidate receives a majority of the electoral vote, the House of Representatives chooses the president from among the top three contenders. However, the House does not vote normally; instead, each state delegation is given only one vote, marginalizing the importance of more populous states. The vice president is chosen through normal voting in the Senate, where each state delegation is already of equal size.
Removal from office
- See also: Impeachment in the United States and United States presidential line of succession
Vacancies in the office of President may arise because of death, resignation, or removal from office. Articles One and Two of the Constitution allow the House of Representatives to impeach high federal officials, including the president, for "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors", and give the Senate the power to remove impeached officials from office, given a two-thirds vote to convict. Two presidents have thus far been impeached by the House, Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. Neither was subsequently convicted by the Senate; however, Johnson was acquitted by just one vote.
Per the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet may suspend the president from discharging the powers and duties of the office once they transmit to the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate a statement declaring the president's incapacity to discharge the duties of the office. If this occurs, then the vice president will assume the powers and duties of President as Acting President; however, the president can declare that no such inability exists, and resume executing the Presidency. If the vice president and Cabinet contest this claim, it is up to Congress, which must meet within two days if not already in session, to decide the merit of the claim.
The United States Constitution mentions the resignation of the president but does not regulate the form of such a resignation or the conditions for its validity. By Act of Congress, the only valid evidence of the president's decision to resign is a written instrument declaring the resignation signed by the president and delivered to the office of the Secretary of State.[8] The only president to resign was Richard Nixon on August 9, 1974; he was facing likely impeachment in the midst of the Watergate scandal. Just before his resignation, the House Judiciary Committee had reported favorably on articles of impeachment against him.
The Constitution states that the vice president is to be the president's successor in the case of a vacancy. If both the president and vice president are killed or unable to serve for any reason, the next officer in the presidential line of succession, currently the Speaker of the House, becomes acting president. The list extends to the President pro tempore of the Senate after the Speaker, followed by every member of the Cabinet in a set order.
Duties and powers
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The president is the chief executive of the United States, putting him at the head of the executive branch of the government, whose responsibility is to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed". To carry out this duty, he is given control of the four million employees of the vast executive branch, including one million active duty personnel in the military. Both the legislative and judicial branches maintain checks and balances on the powers of the president, and vice versa.
Various executive and judicial branch appointments are made by presidents, including presidents-elect. Up to 6,000 appointments may be made by an incoming president before he takes office, and 8,000 more may be made while in office. Ambassadors, judges of the federal court system, members of the Cabinet, and other federal officers are all appointed by the president, with the "advice and consent" the Senate, granted by a simple majority. Appointments made while the Senate is in recess are temporary and expire at the end of the next session of the Senate. He may also grant pardons, as is often done just before the end of a presidential term.
In addition, while the president cannot directly introduce legislation, he can play an important role in shaping it, especially if the president's political party has a majority in one or both houses of Congress. While members of the executive branch are prohibited from simultaneously holding seats in Congress, they often write legislation and allow a member of Congress to introduce it for them. The president can further influence the legislative branch through the annual constitutionally-mandated report to Congress, which may be written or oral but in modern times is the State of the Union Address, which often outlines the president's legislative proposals for the coming year. If Congress passes a bill that the president disapproves of, he may veto it; the veto can be overridden only by two-thirds of both houses of Congress, making it substantially more difficult to enact the law.
Perhaps the most important of all presidential powers is command of the armed forces as commander-in-chief. The framers of the Constitution took care to limit the president's powers regarding the military; Federalist No. 69 states in part:
| “ | The President is to be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States. [...] It would amount to nothing more than the supreme command and direction of the military and naval forces [...] while that [the power] of the British king extends to the DECLARING of war and to the RAISING and REGULATING of fleets and armies, all [of] which [...] would appertain to the legislature.[9] | ” |
While the power to declare war is constitutionally vested in Congress, the president commands and directs the military and is responsible for planning military strategy. Congress, pursuant the War Powers Act, must authorize any troop deployments more than 60 days in length. Military spending and regulations are also governed by Congress, providing a check to presidential power. Along with the armed forces, foreign policy is also directed by the president, including the ability to negotiate treaties, which are ratified with the consent by two-thirds of the Senate.
