President of the United States of America

Template:TOC-right The President of the United States of America is the head of state and the head of the Executive branch of the United States of America. The office of the President is defined in Article II of the Constitution.

The Constitution provides that the President must be a natural-born citizen of the United States, at least 35 years of age, elected by Electors from the several states, that the term of office is 4 years, currently beginning on January 20. As a result of the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, no person may be elected President more than twice, nor serve more than ten years as president.

Forty-three men have served as President of the United States since the ratification of the Constitution, beginning with George Washington in 1789. However, the current President, Barack Obama, is counted as the 44th, because Grover Cleveland is counted as both the 22nd and the 24th President.

Evolution of the presidential selection system

As set out in Article II, section 1 of the Constitution, a president is selected every four years by an Electoral College consisting of a number of electors corresponding to the total congressional representation for each state. The constitutional Electoral College system remains largely in place; however, it has undergone a number of changes since it was first established.

The first formal change was made in 1804 with the ratification of the 12th Amendment to the Constitution subsequent to the emergence of political parties in the United States. Before this amendment was passed, each elector voted for two individuals without any specification as to whether they were to be president or vice president; the highest electoral vote-getter was then named president while the second-highest became vice president. The 12th Amendment changed this procedure so that electors cast a single vote on each of two separate ballots, one for president and one for vice president.

The Constitution's 23rd Amendment, which was ratified in 1960, makes the somewhat more modest change of providing the District of Columbia, which lacks congressional respresentation, with three Electoral College votes.

There have been some less formal changes, as well. For example, the Constitution leaves it up to each state to determine how its electors are to be selected and allocated. At first, the electors in most states were appointed by their respective state legislatures. As time went on, however, the states began tying their electoral votes to the popular vote, typically through a "winner-take-all" system in which a state's popular vote winner receives all of that state's electoral votes. Nevertheless, the states still retain the constitutional power to choose their electors through the alternative method of their choosing.

Powers of the President

Certain powers are Constitutionally reserved for the President, while others involve a check-and-balance process.

Aside from the direct powers mentioned in the Constitution, the President has significant powers as the head of the executive branch of the government. Over time, additional powers have accumulated, either by explicit Congressional grant, tradition, or by the President winning political battles with the other branches.

Exclusive presidential powers

As set forth in the Constitution, the President is the Commander-in-Chief of the military forces of the United States, and has the power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except where the President is the target of impeachment.

Requiring Advice and Consent of the Senate

The President may make treaties with other nations, subject to ratification by the Senate, and may appoint ambassadors, judges of the Supreme Court, and heads of departments, subject to the "advice and consent" of the Senate, and may appoint persons to lesser offices established by law.

Appointments not requiring Congressional approval

At present, there are over 7000 positions subject to appointment by the President or by presidential appointees.

History of the Presidency

See also: List of U.S. Presidents

The office of President was created during the framing of the Constitution. The Articles of Confederation provided for a three-person executive which could act in emergencies when Congress was not in session, but otherwise Congress held executive power. The defects of the system led to the proposal for a single chief executive, who would serve a limited term. The limited term and allowing re-election, along with the method of election and limitations on the powers of the President were argued (in The Federalist) to give the Presidency the advantages of a monarchical executive without the disadvantages of a hereditary monarch.

It is reported that the authors of the Constitution had intended that George Washington would serve as the nation's first President, and that the office was designed with him in mind, but also that the Framers were aware that in the future the office would be occupied by much lesser men, and the office was designed to limit the damage a poor president could do. George Washington was, in fact, elected as the first President, and served two terms of office. On leaving office after his second term, he said that no man should serve more than twice, and until the re-election of Franklin Roosevelt in 1940, no man served more than two terms. After the death of Roosevelt, the 22nd Amendment was passed, limiting the number of terms a President could serve.

Presidential Elections

The President is elected by the Electoral College, which votes in December of each year evenly divisible by 4. The Constitution provides that if no candidate receives a majority, that the House of Representatives chooses from among the top three vote-getters in the Electoral vote, but this has happened only twice, in 1800 and 1824. Since the election of 1796, there have been political parties who have supported rival candidates for office. In most elections, there have been only two parties which have received electoral votes, but third parties have arisen in several elections. The most successful third party was the Republican Party, which emerged as a third Party in 1856, won the Presidency with Abraham Lincoln in 1860, and has been one of the two major parties since then. The Democratic Party of today was formed in the 1830s but claims a heritage back to the Democratic-Republican Party of Thomas Jefferson. The Federalist Party controlled the presidency in the 1790s, then faded away. The Whig Party elected two presidents, then was replaced in the 1850s by the modern Republican Party.

Official Residence

The President's official residence is the White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C..

Controversies

Aside from scandals over corruption, some of the primary controversies over the office of President have been those over the war powers of the President versus the Congress; the respective roles of the President and the Senate in the appointment of executive and judicial officers; and the authority of the President to "impound" (or refuse to spend) money appropriated for specific purposes by the Congress; as well as the method of electing the President.