Can anyone be the President of the U.S.?

1. Can anyone be the President of the U.S.? Constitutional Requirements: • Must be at least 35 years old • Must have lived in the United States for 14 years • Must be a natural born citizen Unofficial: • Ability to win party nomination • High office holder • Family name • Money

2. 100% male 100% Caucasian 97% Protestant 82% of British ancestry 77% college educated Demographic Characteristics of U.S. Presidents • 69% politicians • 62% lawyers • >50% from the top 3% wealth and social class • 0.5% born into poverty • 69% elected from large states

3. Presidential Benefits • $400,000 tax-free 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 400-500 Christmas at the White House, 2004

4. Powers of the President

5. Formal Powers of the President • Constitutional or expressed powers of the presidency • Found primarily in Article II of the Constitution (the Executive Article)

6. Formal Powers: Military Powers • Commander in Chief of the Army & Navy • Making undeclared war • Limited by War Powers Act 1973 • President can commit troops for 90 days

7. Executive Powers Formal: Expressed in Constitution • “Faithfully execute” the laws • Direct the administration • Appoint and remove many officials

8. Informal Powers: Those powers not explicitly written in the Constitution but inferred – expanded during modern presidencies 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

9. 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

10. 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)

11. Diplomatic Powers • Appoint ambassadors, ministers and consuls • Make treaties subject to Senate confirmation • Receive ambassadors • Diplomatic Recognition – acknowledging the legal existence of a country/state

12. Legislative Powers • Give State of the Union address to Congress • Recommend “measures” to the Congress or veto legislation • Upon “extraordinary occasions” convene both houses of Congress

13. Judicial Powers • Grant reprieves • Grant pardons • Commute sentences • Grant amnesty

14. Presidential Roles

15. Quick Fire Describe the message of one of the following political cartoon.

16. Head of State • The President is chief of state. This means he is the ceremonial head of the government of the United States, the symbol of all the people of the nation. Queen Elizabeth and President Reagan, 1983 President Kennedy speaks at Berlin Wall, 1963

17. Chief Executive • The Constitution vests the President with the executive power of the United States, making him or her the nation’s chief executive. President Clinton with Janet Reno, the first female Attorney General, February, 1993 President Bush holds cabinet meeting in October, 2005

18. Commander-in-Chief • The Constitution makes the President the commander in chief, giving him or her complete control of the nation’s armed forces. President Johnson decorates a soldier in Vietnam, October, 1966 President Bush aboard U.S.S. Lincoln, May, 2003

19. Chief Legislator • The President is the chief legislator,the main architect of the nation’s public policies. President Clinton delivers the State of the Union Address, 1997 President Roosevelt signs into law the Social Security Act, 1935

20. Political Party Leader • The President acts as the chief of party,the acknowledged leader of the political party that controls the executive branch. President Reagan & Vice-President Bush accepting their party’s nomination in 1980

21. Chief Administrator • The President is the chief administrator, or director, of the United States government. President Bush at Ground Zero after 9-11 Vice-President Johnson sworn in aboard Air Force One after President Kennedy’s assassination, 1963

22. Chief Diplomat • As the nation’s chief diplomat,the President is the main architect of American foreign policy and chief spokesperson to the rest of the world. President Lincoln during the Civil War, 1862 President Roosevelt and the “Bully Pulpit,” 1910

23. Chief Citizen • The President is expected to be “the representative of all the people.”

24. Role of the Vice President

25. Jumpstart Assignment Describe the following political cartoon. How does it relate to the power of the President and Vice President?