OConnor and Sabato Chapter 7: The Presidency

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OConnor and SabatoChapter 7 The Presidency

• Presentation 7.1 The Roots of the Office

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Key Topics

• The Roots of the Office
• Qualifications, Terms, Removal, and Succession
• The Vice Presidency

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i. Introduction

• The importance of the president as leader and
  healer
• The failure of some presidents to ameliorate
  tragedies
• The Hoover effect

Picture courtesy www.september11news.com.
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ii. Introduction cont.

• The framers did not envision a president as
  powerful as the present institution
• From FDRs secret to Bill Clintons briefs, the
  demythifying of the president

FDR relaxing with an aid. Picture courtesy
www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu.
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iii. Introduction cont.

• The importance of persuasion for a president to
  be able to do the job
• Presidents must win the cooperation of members of
  Congress, the support of the people, and the
  respect of foreign leaders

How has the presidency changed between the time
of Washington and George W. Bush?
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The Roots of the Office

• The absence of an executive branch under the
  Articles of Confederation
• The presidency under the articles had no
  authority
• The delegates to the Constitutional Convention
  believed that one person needed to speak on
  behalf of the nation

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1a. The First President?

• Representative from Maryland under the Articles
  of Confederation
• Elected President 1/5/1781
• The office was largely ceremonial

John Hanson (1715-83). Picture courtesy
http//lego70.tripod.com.
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3. Qualifications, Terms, Removal, Succession

• Presidents and VPs must be natural-born citizen,
  at least 35 yrs. old, and a resident of the U.S.
  for at least 14 years
• President serve a 4-year term
• The two-term tradition
• FDRs four terms the 22nd Amendment

Natural Born Born in the U.S. or on U.S.
territory.
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3a. The 22nd Amendment

• FDR ran and won four consecutive elections
• Republicans won Congress and succeeded in
  ratifying the 22nd Amendment
• Now Presidents may only serve 2 terms or ten
  total years in office

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3b. Removal The Impeachment Process (Again)

• Ben Franklin historically, the lack of power to
  impeach had necessitated recourse to
  assassination
• Viewed as an important congressional check on the
  presidential abuses

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790). Picture courtesy
Encarta.
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3bi. Impeachment in a Nutshell

• The chief executive can only be removed for
  Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and
  Misdemeanors
• House acts as a grand jury fact finder votes to
  impeach
• Senate acts as a court of law (w/ chief justice
  presiding)
• 2/3rds Vote necessary to remove

Only two presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill
Clinton have been impeached by the House.
Neither were removed by the Senate
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3c. Succession

• 8 presidents have died in office through illness
  or assassination
• The Vice Presidency was initially the only
  provision for such an eventuality
• The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 lists an
  order of succession
• Speaker of the House
• Senate President pro tempore
• Cabinet secretaries by order of creation

The first three secretaries are state, treasury,
and defense. To date, the Succession Act has
never been used.
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3ci. The 25th Amendment

• Added in 1967 to fill a vice presidential vacancy
• The 25th Amendment directs the president to
  appoint a new VP in the event of death or
  resignation
• Appointment is subject to a majority vote in both
  houses of Congress

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4. The Vice Presidency

• Subject to the same qualifications as the
  president
• Only initial constitutional function was to
  assume the office of the president in case of
  presidential death or incapacitation
• Added the role of presiding officer of the Senate

Vice presidents can only vote in the Senate in
the event of a tie.
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4a. The Vice Presidency cont.VP Perceptions of
the Office

• FDRs 1st VP Garner The jobs not worth a
  bucket of warm spit
• Tensions between early presidents and vice
  presidents

John Nance Garner (1868-1967). Picture courtesy
http//www.cah.utexas.edu.
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4b. The VP Selection Process

• Under the Constitution, the 2nd place finisher in
  the electoral college became VP
• Worked fine for the first two elections
• Washington and his VP John Adams got along
  fine
• In 1796, however, two rivals wound up as
  president and VP

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were political
rivals whose earlier friendship suffered as a
result of the competition.
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4bi. Selection cont.The 12th Amendment (1804)

• Resolved a problem in the electoral college
• Enabled each elector to have two votes one for
  president and one for vice president
• Presidents were empowered to select their running
  mates

In the event that a VP candidate did not receive
a majority of the votes, the Senate was empowered
to select the VP by majority vote.
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4c. Choosing a Running MateSeeking a Balance

• Presidents generally hope to select a candidate
  that will help them win
• Ideological balance pres. candidate picks a VP
  candidate from the opposite wing of their party
  for unification in the general election
• Geographical Balance selecting a candidate from
  another region

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4ci. The Boston-Austin Axis

• A Kennedy-Johnson ticket made sense on a number
  of levels
• Regional Johnson was from TX Kennedy from MA
• Ideological Johnson was more liberal Kennedy
  was moderate

Picture courtesy www.campaignbuttons-etc.com.
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4cii. The Moderate Balance

• Clinton, a southern moderate, selected another
  southern moderate, Al Gore, Jr., as his running
  mate
• George W. Bush, a compassionate conservative
  from the SW, selected Dick Cheney, another W
  conservative as his running mate in 2000
• What are the advantages of such a strategy?

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4d. The President/VP Relationship

• Historically, presidents have not allowed VPs
  much responsibility
• However, recent presidents have been more willing
  to share the load
• The Mondale Model
• The Clinton-Gore relationship
• The Bush-Cheney relationship

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4e. The VP as a Stepping Stone to the Presidency

• The VP is a better place than many, but is not an
  automatic lock
• 5/12 VP aspirants have become president
• Three inherited the office
• Several have been defeated Nixon, Humphrey, and
  Gore

Dan Quayle sought the GOP nomination in 2000 but
was defeated.
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4ei. Stepping Stone cont.Could This Man Be
President in 2008?

• Chief of Staff for Gerald Ford
• Sec. of Defense under George H.W. Bush
• VP with a history of congestive heart ailments

Vice President Dick Cheney (1941-). Picture
courtesy www.whitehouse.gov.