UNIT VII

The Presidency

I. Constitutional Qualifications
a. What do you need?
i. 35 years old
ii. NATURAL BORN citizen
iii. 14 years a resident of the United States
b. Powers are found in Article II
i. Chief Executive
ii. Commander in Chief of the nation’s armed forces
iii. Power to grant pardons
iv. Power to make treaties (Senate approval)
v. Power to appoint ambassadors, justices, and other officials (Senate approval)
vi. Power to sign or veto legislation
vii. Duty to report on the State of the Union
viii. Elected by the Electoral College
II. The Job
a. The POTUS plays many different roles
i. Chief of State – term for the president as the head of the government of the United
States, symbol of the entire nation
ii. Chief Executive – term for the president as vested with the executive power of the
United States (carries out laws)
iii. Chief Administrator – term for the president as head of the administration of the
vast federal bureaucracy
iv. Chief Diplomat – term for the president as the main architect of American foreign
policy and spokesperson to other countries
v. Commander in Chief – term for the president as commander of the nation’s armed
forces
vi. Chief Legislator – term for the president as architect of public policy, both domestic
and foreign, and one who sets the agenda for Congress (thru State of the Union)
1. Three contrasting views
a. Lyndon Johnson – effective b/c of his role as former Senate Majority
Leader – used the “bully pulpit” to achieve his goals
b. Jimmy Carter – outsider from Georgia was unable to work with
Congressional officials and was not effective
c. Bill Clinton – used his support staff and developed a working
relationship with his own party leaders in Congress
2. Weapons against Congress
a. There have been over 1454 regular vetoes with fewer than 200
being overridden by Congress
i. FDR vetoed 372 times
ii. Grover Cleveland – 304
iii. Harry Truman – 180
b. Pocket vetoes have been used over a thousand times
c. Many presidents want to have a “line item” veto
i. Sometimes a President approves of an overall bill, but not
certain pork-barrel riders attached to the bill (forcing
president to accept legislation of which he does not approve)
ii. In 1994, Congress passed a line item veto law, allowing the
president to veto specific parts of legislation in the 13 major
appropriations bills submitted by Congress
iii. Law has since been declared unconstitutional
d. Impounding funds
 i. Send a message to Congress by refusing to release
appropriated funds to executive agencies
ii. Congress responded by passing the 1974 Congressional
Budget and Impoundment Act – set limits to the
impoundment practice and created an independent
Congressional Budget Office
vii. Chief of Party – term for the president as leader of the political party that controls
the executive branch
viii. Chief Citizen – term for the president as the representative of the people, working
for the PUBLIC interest, not just those who elected him
b. Salary and benefits
i. $400,000 per year, plus a $50,000 expense account – this is fixed by Congress and
cannot be touched during a president’s term
ii. Numerous benefits
1. Housing at the White House and Camp David
2. Transportation on Air Force One, limos, Marine One (helicopter)
3. Finest health care in the world
4. private movie theatre in the White House
5. Secret Service protection for life
6. Pensions once time in office is over
a. $166,700/year for life (changes with pay raise of cabinet)
b. $20,000/year for widows
c. Term of office
i. Can be elected to 2 four-year terms
ii. 2-term precedent from Washington to FDR
iii. 22nd Amendment (1951) set term limit for POTUS (max 10 years if VP succeeds
after halfway mark in term)
iv. Succession
1. reasons for succession from VP to POTUS
a. death
b. resignation
c. impeachment and conviction
d. temporary or permanent inability of POTUS to perform executive
duties
i. outlined in 25th Amendment
ii. notification by POTUS in writing to Congress or notification by
the VP and majority of Cabinet to Congress
iii. Vote of 2/3 of Congress
e. 25th Amendment also outlines procedures for selecting a new VP –
happened in 1973 after Spiro Agnew resigned and Gerald Ford was
selected to fill the spot
2. Presidential Succession Act (1947)
a. VP (established by 25th Amendment in 1967)
b. Speaker of the House
c. President Pro Tempore of the Senate
d. Secretary of State
e. Other cabinet members in order of creation
III. The Electoral Process
a. Founders decided on the Electoral College rather than popular direct vote or vote by
Congress
b. When Ross Perot entered the race and won 20 percent of the popular vote in 1992, many
scholars predicted that in a future presidential election, no candidate would receive a
majority of electoral votes (not happened yet) because of two major factors
 i. Winner-take-all feature of the electoral college says that when one person garners
51% of the popular vote in a state, they receive ALL of that state’s electoral votes
ii. Allocation of electoral votes doesn’t always reflect the population (ie. California
has approximately one electoral vote for every 500,000 voters ---- Alaska has three
electoral votes for all 183,000 people based on the 2000 Census
c. On four occasions in American history, the winner of the presidential election did NOT win
the popular vote (but won the Electoral vote)
i. 1824 – Andrew Jackson (won the popular vote) TIED the electoral votes with John
Quincy Adams. Adams was elected by the H.O.R.
ii. 1876 – Rutherford B. Hayes lost the popular vote to Samuel Tilden but still won the
election after an electoral commission was created to investigate irregularities in
some states’ voting. The commission voted down party lines and elected the
Republican.
iii. 1888 – Grover Cleveland won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote to
Benjamin Harrison
iv. 2000 – Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote to George W. Bush
(remember Florida???)…if Green Party candidate Ralph Nader had NOT run, there
is a definite possibility that the people that voted for him would have, instead,
voted for Gore, and Gore would have won the electoral vote as well
IV. Presidential Power
a. Leadership attributes for the president can be easily categorized
i. Ability to manage a crisis
ii. Ability to demonstrate leadership as perceived by the public
iii. Ability to appoint quality officials
iv. Ability to set and clarify the national agenda
v. Ability to achieve success in the foreign policy arena
b. The war-making power of the president has caused the most problems between the
executive and legislative branches
i. Since the Vietnam conflict, Congress has become increasingly concerned with the
president’s unilateral commitment of American troops
ii. Congress passed the War Powers Act of 1973
1. says a president can commit the military in one of three situations
a. official declaration of war by Congress or by specific direction of
Congress
b. if there is a national emergency
c. if the use of force is in the national interest of the United States
2. once troops are sent, the president is required to keep Congress informed
about the action
3. Commitment of troops must end after 60 days (unless approved by
Congress)
4. often been called a “legislative veto”
a. issue has never been resolved by the Courts
b. other attempts at legislative vetoes have been declared
unconstitutional
i. INS v. Chada (1983)
ii. Court said “we have not yet found a better way to preserve
freedom than by making the exercises of power subject to
the carefully crafted restraints spelled out in the Const.”
c. Presidential influence over the Judicial Branch
i. Mainly comes from the power to appoint Supreme Court Justices
ii. Also comes from his power of reprieve and pardon
1. reprieve is a postponement of a sentence
2. pardon forgives the crime and frees the person from legal culpability (Ford
pardoning Nixon in 1974 – most famous)
 3. extension of the pardoning power is the power of amnesty – a blanket
pardon
V. The Executive Departments
a. As the “Chief Executive,” the president is charged with “executing all laws faithfully” – to
do this, the president has developed and organized the executive branch into three areas
i. The Cabinet
1. currently 15 Cabinet positions
a. State
b. Defense
c. Justice (Attorney-General)
d. Treasury
e. Interior
f. Labor
g. Energy
h. Transportation
i. Agriculture
j. Commerce
k. Education
l. Veteran’s Affairs
m. Health and Human Services
n. Housing and Urban Development
o. Homeland Security
2. 4 cabinet-level positions
a. director of the CIA
b. director of the Office of Management and Budget
c. director of the EPA
d. White House Chief of Staff
3. Cabinets are scrutinized by the American public to see if they represent a
cross-section of the population
a. Frances Perkins – first woman AND first African-America on the
cabinet thru FDR
b. George W’s cabinet
ii. The Executive Office of the President (EOP)
1. created by FDR in 1939
2. has four major policy-making bodies
a. National Security Council (NSC)
i. Chaired by the POTUS
ii. Lead advisory board in the areas of national and international
security
iii. Other members
1. Vice-President
2. Secretary of State
3. Secretary of Defense
4. Director of the CIA
5. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
6. National Security Advisor
b. Council of Economic Advisors
i. Made up of leading economists
ii. Each is approved by the Senate
iii. Help the president prepare the Economic Report to Congress
– the economic state of the nation
c. Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
i. Largest agency in the EOP
 ii. Director (Senate approved) prepares the federal budget
(executive spending proposals) which must be submitted to
Congress in January of each year
d. Office of National Drug Control
i. Head of this agency is called the “drug czar”
ii. Prepare ideas for combating drug use by the nation’s citizens
3. other departments in the EOP
a. Office of Policy Development
b. Office of Science and Technology
c. Council on Environmental Quality
d. Office of Administration
e. Office of the United States Trade Representative
iii. White House Staff
1. NONE are elected officials (VP)
2. managed by the White House Chief of Staff
3. directly advises the president on a daily basis
4. key departments
a. Office of Communications
b. Legislative Affairs
c. Political Affairs
d. Intergovernmental Affairs
5. other staff include over 600 people who work at the White House (chefs,
advance teams that make travel arrangements, etc.)
VI. Relationship with the Media
a. The president today must have a symbiotic relationship with the media to get their
message out
i. The president’s press secretary (part of the White House Staff) deals with the press
corps
ii. President has a great deal of access to television spots
iii. Weekly radio address to discuss whatever he wants
b. Since Watergate, the president has tried to control and spin the media
VII. Public Approval
a. Polls are used extensively by the White House to gauge public opinion
i. Average approval rating of outgoing presidents is around 50%
ii. During times of national emergency, the president’s approval rating usually
increases sharply
iii. Techniques like FDR’s “Fireside Chats” and Clinton’s “Town Hall Meetings” help the
president to get his message out to the public
b. Major factors influencing public opinion of the president
i. Pre- and post-election upswings – most presidents enjoy a jump prior to and
immediately after elections
ii. Ability to handle a foreign crisis
iii. Condition of the economy – better economy/better polls and vice-versa
iv. Leadership during a domestic crisis – moral and ethical issues and response to
national emergencies (Reagan ending Air Traffic Controllers Strike and LBJ handling
of JFK assassination)
v. Ability to get programs thru Congress