Today we are looking at the shockingly few requirements to be President, and what in fact, the President technically can and cannot do according to the Constitution.
Today we are looking at the shockingly few requirements to be President, and what in fact, the President technically can and cannot do according to the Constitution. There are only two requirements that the Constitution lists for the president in Article II. (1:03) The president is in charge of the executive branch and is tasked with ensuring laws are carried out as well as several other jobs according to the Constitution. (2:00) The president has several different roles that must be fulfilled including: Commander and Chief, chief executive, economic leader, chief of state and diplomat, and finally chief legislator.(2:38) We also look at the role that Federalist 70 played in the argument for a head of the executive branch.(5:14) Finally, we examine the way in which presidential power has expanded over time.(6:20)
Today’s question of the day is (9:10): For which president was English his second language?
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INTRO: Hi and welcome to the APsolute Recap: US Gov Edition. Today’s episode will recap The Presidency
Lets Zoom out:
Unit 2- Interaction Among Branches of Government.
Topic- 2.4-2.6
Big idea - Constitutionalism
“When I grow up, I am going to move out of here and be President, and then I can do whatever I want!” “You better be outta here long before you turn 35!” Today we are looking at the shockingly few requirements to be President, and what in fact, the President technically can and cannot do according to the Constitution. We will also look at the ways in which presidential power expanded since the start of the 20th century.
Lets Zoom in:
There are only two requirements that the Constitution lists for the president in Article II. The president must be of at least 35 years of age, resided in the US for the last 14 years, and he or she must be a “natural born citizen.” Now that second point isn’t entirely clear. Do you have to be born on US soil or does being born to a US citizen and thus inheriting the citizenship count? Well, there is no clear answer and it has never come before the Supreme Court to decide. Former Presidential candidate John McCain was born in Panama and presidential hopeful Ted Cruz in Canada to a Canadian father and American mother, but with no challenge to either of them, the question remains unanswered. That being said, most of the presidents have several unofficial characteristics in common: older, white, wealthy, Protestant males. We have had one Catholic President, JFK, and one person of color, Barack Obama.
The President is in charge of the executive branch and oversees a large bureaucracy which we will cover in a future episode. The powers of the president listed in the Constitution include the power to veto legislation, negotiate treaties, pardon federal felons, and nominate - ambassadors, Cabinet level positions, and judges to the Supreme Court. Additionally, the President is Constitutionally mandated to deliver a speech on the State of the Union annually. However, the job comes with a lot of other roles that he or she is expected to fulfill.
The President is the Commander and Chief of the armed forces, putting him or her in charge of the entire military and making orders given by the president mandatory for the military to follow. However, the power to declare war is not one of these; that power lies with Congress. The President is also the chief executive in charge of a large bureaucracy that keeps the country running. The president is the economic leader of the country, a factor which plays a major role in elections. It is the president’s job to prepare the federal budget, but it is up to Congress to pass that budget. Up next we have chief of state and chief diplomat. Think of these as the symbolic gestures or actions the president makes to the country and the world as our leader. Examples would be visiting disaster zones, awarding medals, hosting foreign heads of state, and in general planning America’s foreign policy and relationship with the rest of the world.
Although the president cannot introduce legislation, he or she is considered chief legislator. The president’s agenda laid out in the State of the Union acts as a strong suggestion to Congress what needs to be accomplished in the upcoming legislative session. Once legislation is proposed, the president can use the power of the office to try to sway public opinion surrounding the bill. This concept is known as the bully pulpit. Finally, the president is the head of his or her political party and can play a role in endorsing candidates, and elevating other members of the party through presidential appointments and jobs within the administration.
One of the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation was the lack of an executive. Many were concerned about the ideal of a single executive, like a president, being too close to an absolute power like a king. In Federalist 70, Alexander Hamilton argues in favor of a single executive for a couple of reasons. The first we have already encountered, the need to balance power. Congress was set up to be a slow and deliberative process, but Hamilton argued that sometimes quick action was required. A second reason was that having a single executive made it easier to hold the government accountable to the people. If things were not going well, there would be one person the people could blame and take action accordingly. Simply put, there is nowhere to hide. The single executive also provides a point of unity for the nation, one individual to get behind during times of struggle or crisis. This idea of Hamilton’s is the reason that we have seen the power of the president expand greatly in the time since the Great Depression. The massive support that FDR would have as a result of his handling of this crisis is one of the reasons we ended up with the 22nd amendment.
Although the idea of the president only serving for two consecutive 4 years terms was put forth by George Washington in his farewell address, it wasn’t until the 22nd amendment that this was the law. It was after FDR’s death and his fourth term in office that this was made official. FDR wasn’t the first president to break with tradition and seek a fourth term, he was just the first to succeed. Looking at the history it makes more sense.
FDR was elected in 1932, the worst year of the Great Depression and spent the next two terms helping the nation get back on its feet. In the summer of 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland and war broke out in Europe. FDR ran with the promise to keep America out of the fighting, which was very much a popular idea with the country. He had social capital, meaning people had faith in him and the government to look out for their best interest. Still, his decision to run for a third and fourth term wasn’t popular with some, and despite his cherished role in American history, the argument that having the same executive for 16 years is not democratic has a lot of merit. The power of the office would continue to expand in the second half of the 20th century with a series of conflicts, both physical (Vietnam) and philosophical (Communism) as well as the threat of terrorism in the 21st century.
Before we go, I want to leave you with a couple of ways to keep your Federalist papers straight. We have now discussed Federalist 10, 51, and 70. One way to think about it is by numbers and sizes. The numbers of the papers are opposite to the size of the group being discussed. Federalist 10 is about factions and the masses, 51 is about a smaller group, Congress, and 70 is about a single individual, the President. Alternatively, for those of you who like mnemonic devices I thought about the idea of the musical Hamilton and how popular it was and came up with Facebook Explodes! F is for factions, B is for balance of power, and E is for executive, which is what the documents are about if you put them in numerical order.
To recap……
There are very few Constitutional requirements to be president, but most of them have other characteristics in common. The president is in charge of many things and has to be adept at handling different aspects of the job. Federalist 70 set up the idea of needing a single executive with power to govern, but the 22nd amendment reminds us that the power of the office expanded beyond the original intention and needs to be watched and checked by the other two branches of government. This is by no means everything you need to know about the President, rather a broad overview of the office.
Coming up next on the Absolute RecAP US Government Edition: The Bureaucracy
Today’s Question of the day is about the presidents
Question: For which president was English his second language?