Post on 20-Jan-2016
The President
One day, YOU could be president!
Turn to a partner and discuss if you think this is really true or not.
Chalk Talk!
Jobs of the PresidentSkills/Qualifications the President should have
Presidents: Before and After
Bill Clinton
George W. Bush
Barack Obama
Roles of the President• Chief of State: ceremonial head of government and symbol of
the people• Chief Executive: has power to carry out laws but is limited by
checks and balances• Chief Administrator: in charge of the executive branch (more
than 2.7 million people)• Chief Diplomat: directs foreign policy and is nation’s primary
spokesman to the world• Commander in Chief: head of the armed forces• Chief Legislator: can’t pass the laws, but suggests and
influences laws• Chief of Party: leader of his own political party• Chief Citizen: represents all the people of America
Becoming President: The Nomination Process
• The Constitution does not lay out a process to run for president
• The two major political parties have, in modern times, come up with a system
• Step 1: Primaries or caucuses, state-by-state, to decide how many delegates a candidate gets– In most states, delegates are proportionally allocated: someone
with 50% of the votes gets half of the delegates for that state– In some states (and never for Democrats), the person with the
highest percentage of the votes gets all of the state’s delegates• Step 2: Nominating convention run by the party• Step 3: Presidential campaign and election
Republican Primary Debate
Primaries• Elections in the Spring of an election year to determine
the one person that will run for a party for president– Can be open or closed– Open: anyone from any party can vote– Closed: Only someone that has registered to that political
party can vote• Early primaries are more important because
candidates that seem popular– Can get more funding– Get more time on the news, which gets their message to the
people– Can get more votes because people like to vote for
“winners”
Caucuses
• A closed meeting of party members who gather to choose delegates to the national convention
• Usually there are very local meetings, then district meetings, then state meetings, during which party members vote for their favorite person to run for president
• At the end, a choice has been made for who the delegates will vote for when they go to the national convention
National Conventions
• By the time of the party’s convention, the primary process should have narrowed down the choices of candidates to just one per party
• The delegates sent by their states then formally vote for their choice for president
• That person then announces their vice-presidential pick and lots of speeches are made
• The people in the party decide what ideals the party will represent that year (platform)
Convention Highlights, 2012
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8peMotP-pLw Mitt Romney, Republican National Convention
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw-ec4grvvc Barack Obama, Democratic National Convention
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo_v14xz6aM Empty Chair
The Electoral College• The votes of Americans do not directly elect the
president– Instead, each state is given a certain number of Electoral
Voters based on its number of representatives in Congress (Utah has 6)
– Whoever gets the most votes in the states gets all the Electoral Votes• Electoral Voters promise to vote for that person • They can change their vote, but usually don’t• In Maine and Nebraska, the votes are split proportionally
– A candidate needs 270 of the 538 possible electoral votes to win
Examples for Utah:
• Obama: 60% Romney: 40% Electoral Votes:
• Obama: 30% Romney: 70% Electoral Votes:
• Obama: 49% Romney: 51% Electoral Votes:
• Obama: 40% Romney: 50% Libertarian: 10%
In 25 States…269 total EV Total Electoral Votes: Total Votes:
• Romney: 70,000 50%• Obama: 3 0%• Johnson: 68,000 49%
In 25 States…269 total EV
• Romney: 5 0%• Obama: 70,000 50%• Johnson: 68,000 49%
The Electoral College• http://www.timeforkids.com/photos-video/video/electoral-college-and-swing-state
s-54101
Path to the Presidency• Primaries • National Conventions• Massive campaigning by both sides– Money raised by SuperPACs and parties– Money spent on tv ads, robocalls, polling, websites, etc.
• Debates by candidates and VP candidates• Election day– Exit polls to predict/project the winner– Electors find out who they are supposed to vote for in
December, but we assume the winner in November• Inauguration
The Powers of the President: Original
• The president was designed to be weak and limited
• Most presidential power in the Constitution is sketchy and not well laid-out
• What it DOES give the president the power to do:– Command armed forces– Make treaties– Approve/veto laws– Send and receive diplomats– “take care that the law be faithfully executed”
Growth of Presidential Power
• The power of the president has grown – The president can bring unity to the government by
being a single, uniting figure– In times of trouble, the people of the US have looked
to the president to fix things (economy, transportation, education, civil rights, etc)
– In times of crisis, immediate decisions must be made– The president can hold the public’s attention through
the tv or internet better than a member of Congress can to build support for policy ideas
Limits on Presidential Power• The Supreme Court can rule that the president has gone
beyond his power– 1952: Harry Truman ordered the Secretary of Commerce to seize
steel mills to try to stop a strike; the Supreme Court stopped him– 2006: George W. Bush wanted to use military tribunals to prosecute
potential terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay, but the Supreme Court said that only Congress had that power
• Checks and Balances– The president can veto a bill, but Congress can override the veto
with a 2/3 vote– The president appoints judges, but Congress has to approve them– Congress can impeach the president– The Supreme Court can rule Executive Orders unconstitutional
Executive Powers of the President• The president must execute (carry out or administer) the laws of the
federal government• Laws passed can have broad wording; the executive branch figures out
fine details and hires people to make sure things happen that the laws require– Ex: immigration laws require immigrants to be able to “read and understand
some dialect or language.”– The President and the executive branch decides what exactly that means– US Citizenship and Immigration Services actually carries out this law daily
• Executive Orders: Rules or regulations passed by the president that have the same effect as laws
• Appoints or removes cabinet members, diplomats, heads of independent agencies, federal judges, and armed forces officers (the Senate has to vote to approve appointments)
• Executive Privilege: The president doesn’t have to reveal certain things about himself or his activities/conversations
Diplomatic and Military Powers
• The President is the chief diplomat…and the main avenue of diplomacy is military force
• The Senate must pass treaties, but it’s the president’s job to push for good treaties that will help his country
• Presidents can make “executive agreements” with other countries that only have to last as long as that person is in power and don’t overrule other laws in the country
• Presidents welcome diplomats, which is an official recognition of that other country
• The President is the commander in chief…he can send troops into war for a short period of time (60 days) before Congress approves (though we’ve found ways around this, because we haven’t formally declared war since WWII)
Judicial Powers
• The president has these powers:– Reprieve: postponement of the execution of a
criminal sentence– Pardon: legal forgiveness of a crime– Commutation: reduce a fine or length of a
sentence for a crime– Amnesty: forgiving a whole group of people
• These things can help or hurt him politically