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

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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