Chapter 13: The Presidency

1. Chapter 13: The Presidency The Flag & the Chimes denote an important Point :-)!

2. I. The Presidents Job Description

3. A. The President’s Roles 1. Chief of state – the ceremonial head of the United States government 2. Chief executive – vested with the executive power of the United States 3. Chief administrator of the Federal Government – administers the federal bureaucracy 4. Chief diplomat – the main architect of American foreign policy

4. 5. Commander in Chief – commands the nation’s armed forces 6. Chief legislator – sets the shape of public policy 7. Chief of party – the leader of the political party in power 8. Chief citizen – the representative of all the people 9. Each role is played simultaneously and is inseparable from the others

5. B. Formal Qualifications for the Presidency 1. The president must be a natural-born citizen of the United States 2. He/she must have lived in the country at least 14 years 3. The President must be at least 35 years old Thirty-Fourth President1953-1961

6. C. The President’s Term 1. The President is elected to a four year term 2. The 22nd Amendment limits Presidents to two full terms in office, and a total of 10 years to serve President Johnson had 3 TV's in his Oval Office so that he could keep track of all broadcasts. At the time there were only 3 television networks in the United States: ABC, NBC and CBSCan you imagine?

7. D. Pay and Benefits • The President’s salary - $400,000 per year plus $50,000 in expenses – is fixed by Congress • Presidents receive many fringe benefits, including use of the White House and Camp David, cars, airplanes, and a yacht Camp David President Truman boards Williamsburg in 1946 The yacht was decommissioned in 1953 per the orders of President Eisenhower. Laid up from 1953 to 1962, she then served the National Science Foundation until damaged in a drydocking accident in 1968. She was subsequently sold to become a hotel/museum in New Jersey, but she was instead laid up. In 1993 she was sent to Genoa, Italy for conversion to a luxury cruise ship. However, these plans were never realized. 1998 view of the Williamsburg awaiting restorartion

8. II. Presidential Succession Robert C. Bryd, W.V. A. The Constitution and Succession 1. If a president dies, resigns, or is removed from office, the Vice-President succeeds to the office 2. After the Vice President the order of succession is • Speaker of the House • president pro tem of the Senate • Secretary of State • the other 14 cabinet members in order of precedence

9. B. Presidential Disability 1. If the President is disabled, the Vice President may temporarily assume the duties of the office 2. The President may resume his duties by informing the Congress that no inability exists 3. The cabinet and the Vice President may challenge the President’s resumption of power

10. III. The Vice Presidency

11. A. Job Description 1. The Constitutional duties of the Vice President are to preside over the Senate and help decide the question of presidential disability • The office of vice President is often treated as an unimportant one

12. B. The Importance of the Office 1. The Vice President must be ready to assume the presidency at a moment’s notice 2. If the office of Vice President is vacated, the President must nominate a new Vice President. The nomination must be confirmed by a majority vote of both houses of Congress

13. IV. Presidential Selection: The Framer’s Plan

14. 1800 Election Results Jefferson 73 Burr 73   Adams 65 Pickney 64 Jay 1 A. Original constitutional Provisions 1. The Framers created the electoral college as an alternative to either popular election or congressional election of the President 2. The electoral vote was state by state, with each elector casting votes for two candidates 3. The candidate with the most votes became President; the runner-up became Vice President 4. In case of a tie, the House of Representatives was charged with electing a President

15. B. The Impact of the Rise of Parties 1. The election of 1800 a. Parties arose during the administrations of Washington and Adams, and each put up its own candidates and electors in the election of 1800 b. This development led to a tie between Jefferson and Burr in the election of 1800, and the House finally chose Jefferson after taking 36 separate ballots.

16. 2. The 12th Amendment a. The rise of a system in which electors were pledged to vote for their party’s candidates necessitated a change in the rules of voting b. The 12th Amendment required electors to specify which person they wanted for President and which for Vice President, so that the tie of 1800 would never be repeated

17. V. Nominating Presidential Candidates Today A. The role of conventions 1. Extent of control by law a. There is little legal control over the convention process b. Conventions are left up to the parties’ control

18. 2. Convention arrangements a. The national committee of each party calls a convention in the summer of each presidential election year b. The choice of its location is an important one August 18, 2000

19. 3. The apportionment of delegates a. The party tells each state how many delegates it may send b. The number is based on the state’s electoral votes, with bonus delegates for those states that have supported the party in recent years Blacks comprise 4.1 percent of delegate total at GOP convention

20. 4. Selection of delegates a. state laws and/or party rules fix the procedures for selection of convention delegates b. The procedure differs from state to state

21. B. Presidential Primaries 1. History a. Presidential primaries were first held in the early 1900s b. Today 44 states hold some form of presidential primary

22. 2. Primaries today a. Primaries are delegate-selection processes and/or elections in which voters can express their preference for presidential candidates b. Democrats have banned the once common winner-take-all primaries, opting for a system of proportional representation c. More than half of the states that have primaries today have only presidential preference primaries

23. C. Evaluation of the Presidential Primary 1. Primaries democratize the presidential nomination process and force office-seekers to test their candidacies before the public 2. Unlike the party in power, the party out of power usually has a hard-fought primary campaign 3. Calls for a national primary or a small number of regional primaries will probably not be successful because conventions are important in preserving party unity

25. D. Caucus and Conventions 1.The caucus-convention process is the oldest method for picking national convention delegates 2. States that do not have primaries choose convention delegates through precinct-level caucuses and local, district, and state conventions

26. VI. At the National Convention A. The Convention Setting 1. Party conventions meet in large auditoriums, with seating arranged state by state 2. Large areas of the hall are reserved for spectators and for the press

27. B. The Opening Session 1. Conventions run for about four days, with one or two sessions per day 2. At the opening session, temporary convention officials are chosen and welcoming speeches are given

28. C. The Second and Third Sessions • At these meetings, permanent convention officials are chosen, credentials of delegates are examined, rules are adopted, and the party platform is debated 2. The platform is an important document that states the party‘s position on key issues

29. D. The Final Sessions 1. In the final sessions, nominations are made and balloting proceeds 2. Once the candidate has been selected, the vice-presidential nominee is named and the candidate makes his or her acceptance speech

30. E. Whom Does the Party Nominate? 1. Incumbent presidents almost always get another nomination if they want it 2. In order to win their party’s nomination, other candidates must have considerable political experience and popularity 3. Historically, nominations have gone to white male Protestants who have been governors, senators or vice-presidents

31. VII. The Election

32. A. The Electoral College Today 1. Electors are chosen by popular vote. 2. The party that wins the majority of the popular vote in each State gets all of that State's electoral votes. 3. Electors meet at a time set by law to elect the President, and their votes are sent by registered mail to Washington, where they are counted on January 6th. 4. In case of a tie for either President or Vice President, the decision is made by Congress.

33. B. Flaws in the Electoral College 1. The First Major Defect—Because electoral votes are not distributed in exact proportion to the population, the winner of the popular vote may not win the electoral vote. 2. The Second Major Defect—Electors are not bound by the Constitution or by any federal law to vote for the candidate favored by the people of their State. 3. The Third Major Defect—Elections may be thrown into the House of Representatives, where voting is State by State.

34. C. Proposed Reforms 1. The District Plan—The district plan would allow electors to be elected in each congressional district, rather than the current winner-take-all plan. 2. The Proportional Plan—The proportional plan would given each candidate the share of the electoral vote that he or she earned in the popular vote. 3. Direct Popular Election—Under this system, the electoral college would be abolished, and each citizen's vote would count equally toward the presidential election. 4. The National Bonus Plan—Under this complex plan the winner-take-all feature of the electoral college would be kept but weighted in favor of the winner of the popular vote, and the electoral college would be abolished.

35. 5. A final word - defenders of the current electoral college system emphasize that it is a known process, that it identifies the winner quickly and certainly, and that critics exaggerate the danger of an undemocratic outcome Impact of the Electoral College in American History

36. The End