The
President of the United States of America (sometimes abbreviated as
POTUS) is the
head of state and
head of government of the
United States. 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, to create a
Cabinet of advisors, to grant
pardons or reprieves, and, with the "
advice and consent" of the
Senate, 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, whom 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.
While in office, the
White House in
Washington, D.C. serves as the place of residence for the president. The president is also 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. A salary of
$400,000, along with other benefits, is paid to the president annually.
The United States was the first country to create the office of
president as head of state of a modern
republic. Since the adoption of the Constitution, forty-two individuals have been elected or succeeded into the presidency, the first being
George Washington, serving forty-three different presidencies altogether (since Grover Cleveland was the twenty-second and twenty-fourth president(s) of the U.S.A.). The current president is
George W. Bush, inaugurated on
January 20,
2001 to a first term and on
January 20,
2005 to a second. His term expires at noon on
January 20,
2009, after which he'll be replaced by the winner of the
2008 presidential election. From the middle of the twentieth century, the United States' status as a
superpower has led the American president to become one of the world's most well-known and influential public figures.
U.S. presidential elections are regarded by many as events of international as well as national significance and are closely followed in many places around the world.
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.
However, during the
economic depression that followed 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.
Before the 1788 ratification of the Constitution, there was no comparable figure with executive authority. 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 of America in Congress Assembled", often shortened to "President of the United States". They had no important executive power. 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 of royal authority.
Qualifications
Article Two of the Constitution sets the qualifications required to become president. Presidents must be:
- natural-born citizens of the United States
- at least thirty-five years old
- must have been resident in the United States for at least fourteen years
Citizens at the time of adoption of the Constitution were also eligible to become president, provided they met the age and residency requirements. While not an official requirement, the vast majority of presidents had prior experience as vice presidents, members of Congress, governors, or generals; in addition, thirty-one of forty-three presidents served in the military, all but one of them, James Buchanan, as an officer. During the electoral process, experience or lack thereof is often given as a point in a presidential candidate's campaign.
Candidates usually must receive the backing of a major political party. This isn't strictly required in order to be considered a serious candidate. Third-party candidate
Ross Perot received nearly 19% of the vote in the
1992 election.
Election
Unlike most other countries using the
presidential system, presidents are elected
indirectly in the United States. A number of electors, collectively known as the
United States Electoral College, select the president instead. Each state is allocated a number of electors, equal to the size of its delegation in both houses of Congress combined. Additionally, the
Twenty-third Amendment to the Constitution grants electors to the District of Columbia as if it were a state, with the restriction that it may not have more representation than the least populated state. Electoral apportionment is adjusted every ten years, in alignment with the
census.
State legislatures are constitutionally empowered to appoint electors, however, all of the fifty states have established their popular selection.
History
Article Two of the Constitution originally established the method of presidential election. It also used an electoral college, but there was a major difference in the voting system. Each elector cast two votes, with the intention that one would be used for a presidential and the other for a
vice presidential candidate. The candidate with the highest number of votes would become the president, while the second-place candidate becoming the vice president.
However, the
1796 and
1800 elections highlighted flaws in the electoral system in use at the time. In particular, the tie in the electoral vote that resulted from the lack of separation between presidential and vice presidential votes in the latter election was an issue. The
Democratic-Republican Party's candidates, who won the election, were tied with each other, and as a result, the election was thrown to the
House of Representatives in the outgoing
Federalist Party-controlled
6th Congress. Federalist representatives attempted to elect
Aaron Burr, the Democratic-Republican candidate for vice president, over
Thomas Jefferson, the presidential candidate. Jefferson eventually won after
Alexander Hamilton managed to swing one state delegation's vote to him. As a result, Congress proposed the
Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution in 1803, and it was ratified in 1804. This amendment created the electoral system used today.
Campaign
The modern presidential campaign begins before the
primary elections, which the two major political parties use to clear the field of candidates in advance of their
national nominating conventions, where the most successful candidate is made the party's nominee for president. The party's presidential candidate chooses a vice presidential nominee and this choice is rubber-stamped by the convention. Also, the party establishes a platform on which to base its campaign. Although nominating conventions have a long history in the United States, their substantive importance in the political process has greatly diminished; however, they remain important as a way of energizing the parties for the general election and focusing public attention on the nominees.
Nominees participate in
nationally televised debates, and while the debates are usually restricted to the
Democratic and
Republican nominees, third party candidates may be invited, such as
Ross Perot in the 1992 debates. Nominees campaign across the country to explain their views, convince voters, and solicit contributions. Much of the modern electoral process is concerned with winning
swing states through frequent visits and
mass media advertising drives.
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 don't 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 doesn't 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.
Rationale
When the Constitution was written, the framers disagreed on the selection of the president: some favored national popular vote, while others wanted Congress to choose the president. The Electoral College was created as a compromise between the two proposals. It gave rural areas and smaller states a slightly larger role in determining the outcome of the election, and it continues to do so today; for example, the largest state by population,
California, only has about one electoral vote for every 660,000 residents, while the smallest,
Wyoming, has an electoral vote for about every 170,000.
Today, most of the electoral process is a formality in the public eye, as the choice of electors determines the result of the election, with a few exceptions. However, the Twelfth Amendment was written in a time when voters at large had little knowledge of candidates outside their state. As a result, the amendment accommodated this; the electors that voters had chosen were supposed to learn about the other candidates, and make an informed decision that represented the wishes of their constituents. Modern communication has rendered this unnecessary, and as a result, voters now choose between electors that are already pledged to a presidential candidate.
Term of office
A president's term of office begins at noon on
January 20 of the year following the election. This date, known as
Inauguration Day, marks the beginning of the president's and vice president's four-year terms. Before assuming office, the president-elect is constitutionally required to take the
presidential oath:
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's 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" of a simple majority of the
Senate; 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 can't 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
State of the Union Address, which 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 Papers #69 writes in part:
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 must be ratified by two-thirds of the Senate.
Privileges of office
The president is entitled to use the
White House as his living and working quarters, and its entire staff and facilities, including medical care, kitchen, housekeeping and security staff. While travelling, the president is able to conduct the functions of the office from one of two custom-built
Boeing 747 aircraft, known as
Air Force One. The president also utilizes a
United States Marine Corps helicopter, designated
Marine One when the president is aboard. Similarly, "
Navy One", "
Army One," and "
Coast Guard One" are the call signs used if the president is aboard a craft belonging to these services. For ground travel, the president uses an armored
presidential limousine, currently a heavily modified
Cadillac DTS which uses the call sign "Cadillac One."
Salary
The
First U.S. Congress voted to pay
George Washington a salary of $25,000 a year, about $566,000 in 2007 terms. Washington, already a wealthy man, refused to accept his salary, however, he asked for his living expenses to be covered. Theodore Roosevelt spent his entire $50,000 salary on entertaining guests at the White House.
John F. Kennedy donated his salary to charities.
| Presidential pay history |
| Date established |
Salary |
Salary in 2007dollars
|
| September 24, 1789 |
$25,000 |
$566,000 |
| March 3, 1873 |
$50,000 |
$865,000 |
| March 4, 1909 |
$75,000 |
$1,714,000 |
| January 19, 1949 |
$100,000 |
$875,000 |
| January 20, 1969 |
$200,000 |
$1,135,000 |
| January 20, 2001 |
$400,000 |
$471,000 |
Traditionally, the president is the highest-paid public employee. President Bush currently earns $400,000 per year, along with a $50,000 expense account, a $100,000 nontaxable travel account, and $19,000 for entertainment. The president's salary and total expense account serve as an unofficial cap for all other federal officials' salaries, such as that of the
Chief Justice. The most recent raise in salary was approved by Congress and President
Bill Clinton in 1999 and came into force in 2001; prior to the change, the president earned $200,000, plus expense accounts. This was needed because other officials who received annual cost-of-living increases had salaries approaching that of the president, and in order to raise their salaries further, his needed to be raised as well. Monetary compensation for the president is minuscule in comparison to the
CEOs of most
Fortune 500 companies and comparable to that of certain kinds of professionals, such as
attorneys and
physicians in some parts of the United States. Overall the vast majority of U.S. presidents were very affluent upon entering office and thus were not dependent on the salary.
Prior to passage by Congress of the Former Presidents Act (FPA) in 1958, retired presidents didn't receive a pension. All living presidents in 1959 began to receive a pension of $25,000 per year, an office, and a staff. The pension has increased numerous times with Congressional approval. Retired presidents now receive a pension based on the salary of the current administration's cabinet secretaries (Executive Level I), which is $183,500 as of 2007. Some former presidents have also collected
congressional pensions. The FPA, as amended, also provides former presidents with travel funds and mailing privileges.
Secret Service
The
United States Secret Service is charged with protecting the sitting president and his family. Until 1997, all former presidents and their families were protected by the Secret Service until the president's death. The last president to have lifetime Secret Service protection is
Bill Clinton; George W. Bush and all subsequent presidents will be protected by the Secret Service for a maximum of ten years after leaving office. However, debates in Congress have been raised concerning this decision. Following the increase in terrorism and threats to the president in general since 1997, lifetime protection is being reconsidered.
Presidential libraries
Each president since
Herbert Hoover has created a repository known as a
presidential library for preserving and making available their papers, records, and other documents and materials. Completed libraries are deeded to and maintained by the
National Archives; the initial funding for building and equipping each library must come from private, non-federal sources. There are currently twelve presidential libraries in the NARA system. There are also a number of presidential libraries maintained by state governments and private foundations, such as the
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the State of
Illinois.
After the presidency
Some presidents have had significant careers after leaving office. Prominent examples include
William Howard Taft's tenure as
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and
Herbert Hoover's work on government reorganization after
World War II. More recently,
Jimmy Carter has become a global
human rights campaigner, international arbiter and election monitor, and a best-selling author. Other former presidents have served in elected office after leaving the White House;
Andrew Johnson was elected to the Senate after his term was over, and
John Quincy Adams served in the
House of Representatives for eighteen years.
Grover Cleveland, whose bid for reelection failed in 1888, was elected president again four years later in 1892.
John Tyler served in the provisional
Confederate States Congress during the
Civil War, and was elected to the official Confederate Congress but died before it convened.
Living Former U.S. Presidents
Jimmy Carter
George H.W. Bush
Bill Clinton
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