1. Hail to the Chief
The Power of the
American Presidency

2. Describe the following political cartoon.
Jumpstart Assignment
Describe the following political cartoon.
Describe What’s Happening in the Cartoon

3. Executive Branch: Inception
The Articles of Confederation: combined executive and legislative branches
The Virginia Plan: proposed separate executive and legislative branches
Some feared a strong executive branch could lead to tyranny or monarchy
Checks on executive power
The Articles of Confederation, which in 1777 formally established America’s first national government, instituted a unicameral (one house) legislature that exercised both legislative and executive powers. However, the weakness and ineffectiveness of the national government in dealing with the new nation’s political and economic problems led many to call for revisions to the Articles. Although the state delegates who met in Philadelphia in 1787 were only supposed to fix the Articles’ defects, they soon adopted a motion by Edmund Randolph of Virginia to create an entirely new government. Randolph then introduced a proposal that became known as the “Virginia Plan.” Written largely by James Madison, the Virginia Plan called for a government with three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial.
A debate ensued as to how powerful the new executive branch should be. Some (most notably James Wilson of Pennsylvania) advocated a strong executive who would be independent of both the national legislature and the states. Others feared that a strong executive could lead to tyranny or even an American monarchy. After much argument, the framers of the Constitution settled on having a strong executive branch, but instituted checks on executive power designed to prevent possible abuses.
Pennsylvania delegate James Wilson

4. Demographic Characteristics of U.S. Presidents
70% politicians
63% lawyers
>50% from the top 3% wealth and social class
0.5% born into poverty
69% elected from large states
100% male
97% Caucasian
97% Protestant
82% of British ancestry
77% college educated

5. Constitutional Qualifications
Must be at least 35 years old
Must have lived in the United States for 14 years
Must be a natural born citizen
And that’s it!!!

6. The President’s Term
Until 1951, the Constitution placed no limit on the number of terms a President might serve.
Presidents limited the number of terms served to two. This tradition was broken by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940 when he ran for and won a third term in office. He then went on to be elected to a fourth term in 1944.
The 22nd Amendment placed limits on presidential terms. A President now may not be elected more than twice or only once if they became President due to succession.
Chapter 13, Section 1

7. Presidential Term of Office
The two-term precedent
The 22nd Amendment
The Constitution originally had no limits on how many terms a president could serve. However, George Washington, America’s first president, chose to serve only two terms because he felt that serving longer would set a bad precedent and make the office become too powerful or king-like. Until the 1940s, all presidents followed Washington’s unofficial example and no two-term president tried to run for a third term. In 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt broke the two-term precedent and ran for a third term; he not only won that year but went on to win a fourth term in In 1951, the 22nd Amendment was ratified: it stipulated that no one can be elected president more than twice. FDR remains the only person to be elected president more than twice.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to four terms
George Washington set the two-term precedent

8. Presidential Benefits
$400,000 taxable salary
$50,000/year expense account
$100,000/year travel expenses
The White House
Secret Service protection
Camp David country estate
Air Force One personal airplane
Staff of
Christmas at the White House, 2004

9. Presidential Roles

10. Head of State
Chief Diplomat; Symbol of the US

11. Head of State Queen Elizabeth and President Reagan, 1983
President Kennedy speaks at Berlin Wall, 1963

12. Chief Executive Administrator of the federal government
Chinese Presidents Visit to the US

13. Chief Executive
President Clinton with Janet Reno, the first female Attorney General,
February, 1993
President Bush holds cabinet meeting
in October, 2005

14. Civilian commander of the US Armed Forces
Commander in Chief
Civilian commander of the US Armed Forces

15. Commander-in-Chief President Johnson decorates a soldier
in Vietnam, October, 1966
President Bush aboard U.S.S. Lincoln, May, 2003

16. Chief Legislator
National agenda setter; proposes bills for consideration in Congress

17. Chief Legislator
President Clinton delivers the State of the Union Address, 1997
President Roosevelt signs into law the Social Security Act, 1935

18. Political Party Leader
Head of the party who assists in member’s elections or appointment to office
Barack Obama delivers his Inaugural address in front millions in Washington and millions more on worldwide TV.

19. Political Party Leader
President Reagan & Vice-President Bush accepting their party’s nomination in 1980

20. Crisis Manager
Lead country through disasters, both natural and man-made
President Barack Obama wipes away a tear during his speech at the event "Together We Thrive: Tucson and America" honoring the January 8, 2011 shooting victims

21. Crisis Manager President Bush at Ground Zero after 9-11
Vice-President Johnson sworn in aboard Air Force One
after President Kennedy’s assassination, 1963

22. Moral Persuader
The White House as a bully pulpit (From President T. Roosevelt, meaning a platform from which to persuasively advocate and agenda. Word “bully” means superior.”

23. Moral Persuader President Roosevelt and the “Bully Pulpit,” 1910
President Lincoln during the Civil War, 1862

24. Role of the Vice President

25. Role of the Vice President
____ 1. The vice president is also the president of the Senate.
_____2. The vice president is also head of the judicial branch and presides over the Supreme Court.
____ 3. The vice president and cabinet are part of the legislative branch.
____ 4. The vice president is first in the line of succession to the presidency.
____ 5. The Constitution notes only one official role for the vice president.
____ 6. The qualifications for the vice presidency are not the same as those for the presidency.
____ 7. The vice president administers the oath of office to the president.

26. Presidential Disability
Sections 3 and 4 of the 25th Amendment provide procedures to follow when the President is disabled.
The Vice President is to become acting President if:
(1) the President informs Congress, in writing, “that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” or
(2) the VP and a majority of the members of the Cabinet inform Congress, in writing, that the President is thus incapacitated.
Chapter 13, Section 2

27. The 25th Amendment
Deals with instances in which the president dies or becomes disabled
Established an order of succession
Set rules for choosing a new vice-president
When President Kennedy was killed in November of 1963, it highlighted the fact that the Constitution had no set procedure in place to determine who would assume the office if a sitting president died. The 25th Amendment was designed to remedy this oversight.
The amendment established an order of succession if the President dies:
(1) Vice President; (2) Speaker of the House; (3) President pro tempore of the Senate; (4) Secretary of State; (5) the rest of the Cabinet members in the order that their office was created by Congress
It also set a procedure for occasions where a new vice-president needs to be selected: the president nominates someone, then the person has to be confirmed by both houses of Congress. The 25th Amendment also outlines what needs to happen in cases where a president becomes disabled. When a president knows he will be “unable to discharge the duties of his office” (usually due to a medical condition or operation), he can temporarily transfer power, allowing the vice-president to serve in his place until he recovers.
In cases where a president unexpectedly becomes incapacitated, the amendment allows for the vice-president to become acting president only after he and the “principal officers of the executive departments” (i.e., members of the cabinet) attest to the president’s incapacitation in a written declaration they send to the president pro tempore of the Senate and to the Speaker of the House.
Lyndon Johnson takes the presidential oath of office after the assassination of JFK

29. Presidential Succession Act of 1947
Provides an official line of succession should something happen to the President or Vice President.
Non-Natural-Born citizens are ineligible
Must have been confirmed by Senate
14 VP’s have went on to become President. 5 of our last 11 Presidents were once VP.

30. Vice President
Joe Biden-D

31. Speaker of the House
John Boehner - R

32. President Pro Tempore of the Senate
Patrick Leahy-D

33. Secretary of State
John Kerry-D

34. Secretary of the Treasury
Jacob Lew-Ind

35. Presidential Powers of the United States

36. Constitutional Powers
Powers/duties are very limited
“executive power” – enact/enforce law
Military Power
Diplomatic Power
Appointment Power
Veto Power

37. Formal Powers of the President
Constitutional or enumerated powers of the presidency
Found primarily in Article II of the Constitution

38. Formal Powers: Commander-in-Chief (National Security Powers)
Commander in Chief of the Army & Navy
Commander in Chief of the state militias (now the National Guard)
Commission all officers

39. Formal Powers: Commander-in-Chief - Examples
Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief during Civil War
FDR during WWII
Eisenhower sends army to segregate HS in Little Rock, AR (1957)
George W. Bush deploys National Guard reservists in Iraq

40. Formal Powers: Chief Executive (Administrative Powers)
“Faithfully execute” the laws
Require the opinion of heads of executive departments
Grant pardons for federal offenses except for cases of impeachment
Nominate judges of the Supreme Court and all other officers of the U.S. with consent of the Senate
Fill vacancies that may happen during recess of the Senate

41. Formal Powers: Chief Executive - Examples
Washington created the first cabinet (1789)
President Ford pardoned Richard Nixon (1974)
President Reagan appoints first female Supreme Court Justice (1981)

42. Formal Powers: Foreign Affairs (National Security Powers)
Appoint ambassadors, ministers and consuls
Make treaties subject to Senate confirmation
Receive ambassadors

43. Formal Powers: Foreign Affairs - Examples
President Kennedy negotiates the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with the USSR

44. Formal Powers: Chief Legislator (Legislative Powers)
Give State of the Union address to Congress
Recommend “measures” (legislation) to the Congress
Upon “extraordinary occasions” convene both houses of Congress
Adjourn Congress if House and Senate can not agree on adjournment

45. Formal Powers: Chief Legislator (cont.)
Presidential Veto
Veto Message within 10 days of passing the House of origin
Pocket Veto - President does not sign within 10 days
Congress can override with 2/3 majority from both Houses
Veto Politics
Congressional override is difficult (only 4%)
Threat of veto can cause Congress to make changes in legislation

46. Formal Powers: Chief Legislator - Examples
George Washington gave the first State of the Union address
FDR and the New Deal
Obama and Stimulus Plan

49. JUDICIAL POWERS
Grant reprieves and pardons for federal offenses (except impeachment)
Nominate federal judges (including Supreme Court Justices), who are confirmed by the Senate

50. Informal Powers
Those powers not explicitly written in the Constitution
Similar to “necessary and proper” powers of Congress
In the modern era (since 1933), the President’s informal powers may be significantly more powerful than his formal powers

51. Executive Orders
Orders issued by the President that carry the force of law
Clinton’s “Don’t ask don’t tell” gays in the military policy
FDR’s internment of Japanese Americans
GWB trying suspected terrorists in military tribunals
Notice for Japanese “relocation,” 1942

52. Executive Agreements
International agreements, usually related to trade, made by a president that has the force of a treaty; does NOT need Senate approval
Jefferson’s purchase of Louisiana in 1803
GWB announced cuts in the nuclear arsenal, but not in a treaty; usually trade agreements between
US and other nations

53. Executive Privilege
Claim by a president that he has the right to decide that the national interest will be better served if certain information is withheld from the public, including the Courts and Congress
United States v. Nixon (1973) – presidents do NOT have unqualified executive privilege (Nixon Watergate tapes)

54. Questions for Discussion
Why are informal powers more important than formal powers, particularly to modern presidents?
Identify several advantages and disadvantages of the use of the president’s informal powers.
Has the use and perhaps abuse of the informal powers created an “Imperial Presidency?” Defend your answer.

55. War & Peace - Whose Power Is It?
The War Powers Struggle Between
the President and Congress

56. Constitutionally Speaking:
War Powers

57. War Powers - President Commander in Chief of the Army & Navy
Commander in Chief of the state militias (now the National Guard)
Commission all officers
Appoint ambassadors, ministers and consuls
Make treaties subject to senate confirmation
Receive ambassadors

58. Indirect War Powers – President
“Faithfully execute” the laws
Require the opinion of heads of executive departments
Recommend “measures” to the congress
Upon “extraordinary occasions” convene both houses of congress

59. War Powers - Congress Declare war Raise & support army & navy
Ratify treaties (Senate)
Advise & consent of ambassadors (Senate)
Make rules concerning captures on land & water
Organize, arm, train & provide for the militia
Suppress insurrections & repel invasions

60. Indirect War Powers-Congress
Make all laws necessary and proper for carrying out the expressed powers of the Constitution
Regulate commerce with foreign nations
Originate tax bill (House)
Collect taxes, duties, excises (both
Borrow (both)
Define and punish offenses against the law of nations

61. War Powers Resolution - Purpose
Full intent of the framers
Insure “collective judgment” between Congress and the President occurs when US armed forces are introduced into hostilities
Cites necessary and proper clause to grant Congress authority in WPR

62. The War Powers Resolution
President must consult w/ Congress before introducing armed forces into hostilities
Consult with Congress regularly until troops removed
If war not declared, President must submit report to Congress within 48 hours of troop deployment
President must remove troops after 60 days (+30 days for withdrawal) if Congress has not declared war