The Presidency

1
The Presidency

• Lecture 10

2

• Presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal
  Dante tells us that divine justice weighs the
  sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the
  warm-hearted in different scales
• Franklin D. Roosevelt
• 32nd President of the United States (1933-1945)

3
Presidential Hats

• Chief law enforcer
• Order National guard into sensitive situations
• Leader of Party
• Shape and promote party agenda
• Commander in Chief
• Shaper of domestic policy
• Key player in legislative process
• Chief of State
• Represent nation crisis management

4
Qualifications and Terms of Office

• Qualifications
• Natural-born citizen
• At least 35 years old
• Resident of the United States for at least
  fourteen years
• Terms of Office
• Twenty-Second Amendment (two term limit)
• Impeachment Constitutional process to remove
  President, VP, and other officials from office.
• Executive Privilege assertion that president can
  withhold information requested by the courts in
  matters relating to the presidential office

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Line of Succession

• Vice President
• Succession Act of 1947
• Speaker of the House of Representatives
• President pro tempore of Senate
• Secretaries of state, treasury, defense, and
  other Cabinets heads in the order of the creation
  of their department
• Twenty-Fifth Amendment
• Vacancy in office of vice president is to be
  filled immediately by President and approved by
  simple majority in both chambers of Congress.

6
Powers of the President

• Appointment Power
• Ambassadors, Judges, Cabinet, other officials
• Can make more than 6000 appointments to his
  administration (military not included)
• Can appoint friends and those who will push his
  agenda (aka cronies)
• Michael Brown Director FEMA
• Patrick Rhode Deputy Director and Chief of Staff
  FEMA
• Brooks Altshuler Acting Deputy Chief of Staff
  FEMA

7
Powers of the President (cont.)

• Power to make treaties
• Veto Power
• Commander in Chief
• Pardoning Power
• Power to Convene Congress

8
Required Reading

• Wolfensberger, D. R. (2002). "The Return of the
  Imperial Presidency?", Wilson Quarterly, Vol. 26
  Issue 2, 36-41.