Transcript File

AP US Government & Politics
The Presidency
(Chapter 14)
Presentation Outline
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
US Presidency Background
Presidential Roles
Formal Powers
Informal Powers
Formal Checks on Presidential Power
Informal Checks on Presidential Power
1) US Presidency Background
Demographic Characteristics of
U.S. Presidents
•
•
•
•
100% male
98% Caucasian
98% Protestant
82% of British
ancestry
• 77% college educated
• 69% politicians
• 62% lawyers
• >50% from the top 3%
wealth and social class
• 0.5% born into
poverty
• 69% elected from
large states
Constitutional Qualifications
• Must be at least 35
years old
• Must have lived in
the United States for
14 years
• Must be a natural
born citizen
Presidential Benefits
• $400,000 tax-free salary
• $50,000/year expense
•
•
•
•
•
•
account
$100,000/year travel
expenses
The White House
Secret Service
protection
Camp David country
estate
Air Force One personal
airplane
Staff of 400-500
Christmas at the White House, 2004
2) Presidential Roles
Head of State
Queen Elizabeth and President Reagan, 1983
President Kennedy speaks at Berlin Wall,
1963
Chief Executive
President Clinton with Janet Reno,
the first female Attorney General,
February, 1993
President Bush holds cabinet meeting
in October, 2005
Commander-in-Chief
President Johnson decorates a soldier
in Vietnam, October, 1966
President Bush aboard U.S.S.
Lincoln, May, 2003
Chief Legislator
President Clinton delivers the State
of the Union Address, 1997
President Roosevelt signs into law the
Social Security Act, 1935
Political Party Leader
President Reagan & Vice-President Bush accepting their party’s
nomination in 1980
Crisis Manager
President Bush at Ground Zero after 9-11
Vice-President Johnson sworn in
aboard Air Force One
after President Kennedy’s
assassination, 1963
Moral Persuader
President Lincoln during the Civil
War, 1862
President Roosevelt and the “Bully
Pulpit,” 1910
3) Formal Powers
Formal Powers:
Commander-in-Chief
• Commander in Chief of the Army & Navy
• Commander in Chief of the state militias (now
the National Guard)
• Commission all officers
Formal Powers:
Chief Executive
• “Faithfully execute” the laws
• Require the opinion of heads of executive
departments
• Grant pardons for federal offenses except for
cases of impeachment
• Nominate judges of the Supreme Court and all
other officers of the U.S. with consent of the
Senate
• Fill vacancies that may happen during recess of
the Senate
Formal Powers:
Foreign Affairs
• Appoint ambassadors, ministers and
consuls
• Make treaties subject to Senate
confirmation
• Receive ambassadors
Formal Powers:
Chief Legislator
• Give State of the Union address to
Congress
• Recommend “measures” to the Congress
• Upon “extraordinary occasions” convene
both houses of Congress
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cse5
cCGuHmE
Formal Powers:
Chief Legislator (cont.)
Presidential Veto
• Veto Message within 10 days of passing the House of
origin
• Pocket Veto - President does not sign within 10 days
• Congress can override with 2/3 majority from both
Houses
Veto Politics
• Congressional override is difficult (occurring only 4%
of the time)
• Threat of veto can cause Congress to make changes in
legislation
4) Informal Powers
Informal Powers
• Those powers not explicitly written in the
Constitution
• Similar to “necessary and proper” powers
of Congress
• In the modern era (since 1933), the
President’s informal powers may be
significantly more powerful than his
formal powers
Executive Orders
• Orders issued by the
President that carry the force
of law
• Clinton’s “Don’t ask don’t
tell” gays in the military
policy
• FDR’s internment of
Japanese Americans
• GWB trying suspected
terrorists in military tribunals
Notice for Japanese “relocation,” 1942
Executive Agreements
• International agreements, usually related to trade, made by a
president that has the force of a treaty; does NOT need Senate
approval
• Jefferson’s purchase of Louisiana in 1803
• GWB announced cuts in the
nuclear arsenal, but not in a
treaty; usually trade agreements
between
US and other nations
• Obama’s recent decision to give
diplomatic recognition to Cuba
Executive Privilege
• Claim by a president that he has the right to decide
that the national interest will be better served if
certain information is withheld from the public,
including the Courts and Congress
• United States v. Nixon
(1973) – presidents do
NOT have unqualified
executive privilege (Nixon
Watergate tapes)
5) Formal Checks on
Presidential Power
Congressional Checks on the
President
(Article I)
• Make laws (ex: War Powers
Resolution)
• Override presidential vetoes
• Power to declare war
• Power of the purse (taxes and funding)
• Regulation of the land and naval
forces
Congressional Checks
(cont.)
• Impeachment Power (House)
• Impeachment Trial (Senate)
President Clinton’s impeachment trial, January, 1999
Limits on Presidential Power
(Article II)
• President elected indirectly by the
people through the Electoral College
• Selection of president (House) in case of
no majority of electoral vote
• President must deliver State of the
Union address
• Senate approves treaties and
ambassadors
Limits on Presidential Power
(Article II)
• Senate approves department appointments
• “Advice and consent” of federal judge
appointments (Senate)
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice testifies at her
Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation
hearing, January, 2005.
Nominee for Chief Justice, John Roberts is sworn in
at his Senate Judiciary committee confirmation
hearing, September, 2005.
Judicial Checks on the President
• Judicial review
(Marbury v.
Madison)
• Chief Justice
presides over
presidential
impeachment trial
(Article I)
Constitutional Amendments
12th – Choosing president & vicepresident on separate ballots
20th – Presidential succession
22nd – Presidential term limits (2 terms; 10
years total)
25th – Presidential disability and succession
6) Informal Checks on
Presidential Power
Public Opinion
In a televised address in March, 1968, President
Johnson announced he would not seek the
Democratic nomination for president due to
sagging public support for his administration and
the war in Vietnam.
Though he enjoyed record public support during the
Persian Gulf War, President George H. W. Bush saw
his numbers dip dramatically in the polls and he lost
his re-election bid to democrat Bill Clinton in 1992.
The Media
Partisan Politics
Howard Dean, Chairman of the Democratic
National Committee and vigorous critic of the
Bush administration, May, 2005
Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R) battles
President Bill Clinton (D) over the national
budget resulting in the shutdown of the federal
government in 1995
Congressional Investigations
Senate Banking
Committee begins its
investigative hearings
on the Whitewater
scandal during the
Clinton
administration
(1994)
Oliver North testifies before Congress at the
Iran-Contra hearings during the Reagan
administration (1987)
Former FEMA
director Michael
Brown testifies
before the House
Select Committee
on Hurricane
Katrina, Sept., 2002
Interest Groups & NGO’s
The National Right to Life Committee and other
pro-life interest groups spoke out against President
Clinton’s veto of the ban on partial birth abortion,
1996
The National Organization of Women, Cindy
Sheehan, and others protest the war in Iraq, April,
2006