The Presidency
Magruder Chapter 13
The President’s Roles
Chief of State
 Rules and reigns
 Chief Executive
 Vested with immensely broad powers in
both domestic and foreign affairs

Chief Administrator
 Head of one of the largest government
machines in the world
 Chief Diplomat
 Speaks for the nation around the world

Commander-in-Chief
 Head of the American military
 Chief Legislator
 Main architect of public policies
 Chief of Party
 Leader of his respective party

Chief Citizen
 Representative of the people
 Each role is played simultaneously and is
inseparable from the others

Formal Qualifications

The President must be:
 Article II, Section 1, Clause 5
 35 years of age
 Has lived in the United States for at least
14 years
 Is a natural-born citizen, or a citizen at
the time of the adoption of the US
Constitution
The President’s Term of Office
The President is elected for a four-year term
 Article II, Section 1, Clause 1
 Originally could serve as long as the
Electoral College would elect him
 Today, can only be elected to two full terms
 Twenty-Second Amendment

Pay and Benefits
The pay of the President
 $400,000 per year
 Fixed by Congress
 Washington paid $25,000 per year
 $50,000 taxable expense account
 Pension of $181,100 per year
 Many other perks.

Presidential Succession
The Constitution and Succession

If the President dies, resigns, or is removed
from office, the Vice President succeeds to
the office
The Constitution and Succession
The Constitution states: “In case of the
removal of the president from office, or of
his death, resignation, or inability to
discharge the powers and duties of the said
office, the same shall devolve upon the Vice
President.”
 Article II, Section 1, Clause 6

The Constitution and Succession
John Tyler took the office in 1841 instead of
becoming acting president
 25th Amendment
 “In case of the removal of the President
from office or his death or resignation, the
Vice President shall become President”

The Constitution and Succession
Presidential Succession Act of 1792
 President, Vice President, President pro
tempore, Speaker of the House
 Special Election to fill the Vacancy

The Constitution and Succession
Presidential Succession Act of 1886
 President, Vice President, Secretary of
State, Secretary of the Treasury, etc.

The Constitution and Succession
Presidential Succession Act of 1947
 President, Vice President, Speaker of the
House, President pro tempore, Secretary of
State, etc.

Presidential Disability
Disability
The Constitution made no provision for the
disability of the President
 Dwight David Eisenhower had three serious
illnesses
 James Garfield
 Woodrow Wilson

Disability
25th Amendment meets this problem
 Vice President will become acting President
 If the President informs Congress in
writing that he cannot discharge the
powers
 The Vice President and a majority of
Cabinet inform Congress that the
President is incapacitated

The Vice Presidency
The Importance of the Office
The Constitution pays little attention to the
office itself
 Vice President has only two formal duties
 Preside over the US Senate
 Article I, Section 3, Clause 4
 Help decide presidential disability
 25th Amendment, Section 3 & 4

The Importance of the Office
The Vice President is only a heartbeat away
from the Presidency
 Eight presidents have died in office
 One president resigned
 Vice Presidency has been vacant 18 times
 9 times by succession to President
 2 by resignation, 7 by death

The Importance of the Office
25th Amendment changes this
 When a vacancy occurs, the President will
nominate someone who will take the office
upon a majority confirmation vote of both
houses of Congress
 1973 – Gerald Ford
 1974 – Nelson Rockefeller

The Importance of the Office
President has made the Vice President more
important of late
 Sits in on Cabinet meetings
 Head of NASA
 National Security Council
 Special Ambassador of President
 Still not an assistant President

The Importance of the Office

Basic bottom line is that the President of the
United States cannot fire the Vice President
The Electoral College
The Electoral College
Created in Article II of the US Constitution
 Not well understood by most people
 Combination of the Constitution, a few
State and federal laws, and a number of
practices born of the nation’s political
parties

Original Provisions
Many debated this plan
 James Wilson (PA) “this was the most
difficult of all on which we had to decide”
 Most favored selection by Congress
 A few by the people
 This would lead to tumult and disorder

Original Provisions
George Mason: “The extent of the country
renders it impossible that the people can
have the requisite capacity to judge the
respective contentions of the candidates.”
 Plan that was approved was originally put
forward by Alexander Hamilton
 The President would be chosen by electors

The College
Each State would have as many presidential
electors as it has representatives and
senators in Congress
 These electors would be chosen in each
State in a manner the State legislature
directed

The College
The electors, meeting in each State, would
each cast two votes – each for a different
person for President
 The electoral votes would be opened before
a joint session of Congress and counted
 The person receiving the largest number of
votes (if a majority) would become
President

The College
The person with the second largest number
would become Vice President
 If a tie occurred, the President would be
elected by the House of Representatives,
voting by States
 If a tie occurred for the second spot, the
Vice President would be chosen by the
Senate

The College
The Framers intended the electors to be the
“Most enlightened and respectable citizens
from each State”
 They were to be “free agents” who would
be “deliberate freely” in selecting the
person’s best qualified to fill the nation’s
top two offices.

The Rise of Parties
System works only as long as Washington
was President
 Only President elected unanimously
 In 1796, political parties began to play a
role.
 John Adams is elected President
 Thomas Jefferson is elected Vice
President

The Election of 1800
Each party nominates a presidential and
vice presidential candidate
 Each party also nominates candidates to
serve as electors (would vote for party)
 Each of the 73 electors elected voted for
Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr
 House took 36 ballots to decide on Jefferson

The Election of 1800
Election marked the introduction of three
elements in the nomination of the president
 Party nominations for president
 Party nominations for electors pledged to
vote for the candidate
 Automatic casting of electoral votes in line
with those pledges

The
th
12 Amendment
Added in 1804
 Separates election of President and Vice
President
 The fiasco of 1800 will never happen again

Nominating Candidates Today
Nominations
First method devised to nominate
candidates was the Congressional Caucus
 Used from 1800 to 1824
 Both parties turned to the nominating
convention in 1832 and used it ever since

The Nominating Convention
Largely a creation of the political parties
 Constitution is silent on this and have few
federal or state laws controlling it
 The national committee makes the
arrangements for the national convention
 Will set the time and date of the convention

The Nominating Convention
Will select the city for the convention
 Must have facilities
 Gain support of a swing state
 Many larger cities bid on a convention
 Will make a bundle of money

Apportionment of Delegates
The national committee issues a call for the
convention
 Tells each state’s party organization how
many delegates it is allowed to send.
 1996
 Republicans – 1,990 delegates
 Democrats – 4,320 delegates

Really are two campaigns for president
 Primaries and election
 State laws and/or party rules fix the
procedures for picking delegates in each
State
 Can use primaries, conventions, and
caucuses

Presidential Primaries
The Election
The Electoral College Today
One of the least understood parts of the
American political process
 Constitution provides for the election of the
President by the Electoral College
 Each State has the same number of electors
that it has members of Congress
 Founders expected the electors would use
their own judgment

The Electoral College Today
Today, the electors are really just a rubber
stamp of the popular vote.
 They are expected to vote for their party’s
candidates.
 They go through the form
 It is a far cry from the original intent

The Electoral College Today
Electors are chosen by popular vote in every
State on the same day
 Electors are chosen at large except for
Maine and Nebraska (district)
 Electors are chosen on a winner-take-all
basis
 Names of the electors are found on less than
one-fourth of the ballots in the US

The Electoral College Today
The electors meet in their respective State
capitals on the Monday following the
second Wednesday in December
 They cast their ballots for President and
Vice President
 The ballots are signed, sealed, and sent to
the President of the Senate

The Electoral College Today
Formal election of the President does not
take place until January 6th
 Ballots are opened by the President of the
Senate and counted before a joint session of
Congress
 The candidate who receives a majority of
Electoral College votes will be the President

The Electoral College Today
The candidate who receives a majority of
the Electoral College votes in the vice
presidential race will be the vice president.
 If no one receives a majority of votes (270
out of 538), the election is thrown into the
House of Representatives
 House chooses from the top three
candidates

The Electoral College Today
Each State delegation has one vote
 26 votes necessary to win
 1800 – Thomas Jefferson/Aaron Burr
 1824 – John Quincy Adams, Andrew
Jackson, William Crawford, Henry Clay

If no one receives a majority of votes in the
vice presidential race, the Senate chooses
from among the top two
 It takes a majority of Senators to elect
 1837 – Richard Johnson

Flaws in the Electoral College
The First Major Defect
The winner of the popular vote does not
become President
 Winner-take-all in the voting
 1992 – Clinton won 50% of the vote in New
York and all 33 electoral votes
 Bush won 2.2 million votes
 Perot won 1.1 million votes

The First Major Defect
Way that electoral votes are distributed
 California – 55 electoral votes
 1 for every 652,614.5 persons
 Alaska – 3 electoral votes
 1 for every 218,478 persons

The First Major Defect

Popular vote winner has failed to win the
presidency four times
 1824
 1876
 1888
 2000
The Second Major Defect
Nothing in any federal statute or the
Constitution requires an elector to vote for
the person who wins the state popular vote
 States can and do require this
 Not sure of the constitutionality of states
laws
 Virginia and Tennessee do require this

The Third Major Defect
Contest will be decided in the House of
Representatives
 Voting is by state, not by individuals
 If the state is so divided that it cannot
decide, it loses its vote
 If strong third-party candidate, then might
not have a winner by inauguration day

Proposed Reforms
The District Plan
Choose electors as one would do members
of Congress
 Two for the senators, and one per
congressional district
 Much more accurate reflection of popular
returns
 Would not eliminate possibility of winner of
popular vote losing presidency

The District Plan
1960 – Richard Nixon wins
 Gives another reason for Gerrymandering

The Proportional Plan
Each candidate would receive the same
share of the electoral vote as he won of the
popular vote
 40% of popular vote, 40% of electoral vote
 Cure winner-take-all problem
 Remove faithless electors
 Yield a more accurate count with states

The Proportional Plan
Would not necessarily produce the same
idea nationally
 1896 – William Jennings Bryan wins
 1880 – Winfield Scott Hancock wins
 1876 – Samuel J. Tilden wins
 1888 – Grover Cleveland wins

The National Bonus Plan
Keep the electoral college as it now is
 A pool of 102 electoral votes would be
added to the total of the popular vote winner
 Need 321 electoral votes to win
 If no received 321, a national run-off
election between the top two candidates

Direct Popular Election

Remove the electoral college altogether
“I am Vice President. In this I am nothing,
but I may be everything.
 “The most insignificant office that ever the
invention of man contrived or his
imagination conceived.”
 “Honorable and easy”
 “Tranquil and unoffending”

“The Vice Presidency isn’t worth a warm
pitcher of spit”
 “A woman had two sons. One of them went
away to sea and the other one became Vice
President and neither of them was ever
heard from again.”
