The Executive Branch
The Presidency
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44
President
Barack Obama is our 44th President and
serves in many roles.
 He is the chief of state which means he is
the head of state.
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Chief Executive
Barack Obama is also referred to as the
chief executive because he is head of the
executive branch.
 As chief administrator of the federal
government President Obama is in charge
of an administration that employs nearly
three million civilians.
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Other positions
President Obama is also commander and
chief (in charge of the armed forces)
 Chief legislator.. He just helped push
through Congress the healthcare reform
bill.
 Chief of Party- The Democrats “top guy”
 Chief Citizen
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Fun facts/ Qualifications
Must be a natural born citizen to be
President
 Must be 35 years old
 Also have lived in the U.S. for 14 years
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John F Kennedy youngest President ever
elected. Ronald Reagan the oldest to be
elected at 69.
Salary and other information
President makes $400,000 a year
 If President dies, resigns or is impeached
the Vice President becomes President
 25th amendment made the succession of
the Vice President a formal amendment .
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Line of Succession
President
 VP
 Speaker of the House
 President Pro Tempore
 Secretary of State
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List is on page 359
Assignment/Web quest
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Online you need to search for the people that
are in line to become President. Look at the list
on page 359. Your goal for today is to learn how
the line of succession would work if multiple
people in government were injured/killed or
impeached. Your job is to give me a list of
names including the President and Vice
President followed by the next eight people in
line to be President. I want their name, their
current title and where they are on the line of
succession list. Assignment is due Wednesday
and will be graded for accuracy. Good luck!!
Electoral College
When deciding how the President would
be elected the Framers of the Constitution
believed that people in the country were
not educated enough to be able to choose
wisely.
 So they devised a system to elect the
President
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Electoral College
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Framers came up with a plan.
Each of states would have as many presidential electors
as it had senators and representatives combined.
This system tends to make candidates focus on large
states/highly populated states in order to gain the 270
votes it needs out of 538 possible votes.
Each of these voters would pick two people for President
The person with the highest number of votes would be
the president, while the second most votes would
become the vice President.
th
12
Amendment
Created separate elections for President
and VP because of the election of 1800.
Parties emerged and this type of election
no longer worked.
 After this method they went to a method
creating a separate race for President and
VP
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National Conventions
This is where a party nominates who their
nominee for their political party will be
 Elections that decide who each candidate
will be for a party are called Presidential
Primaries
 At the beginning of these conventions a
keynote address is given. This is usually
given to fire up support for the party and
its issues!
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Party platform
Basic statement of the party’s principles and
what it stands for on major political issues/policy
matters.
 Deciding the party platform is one of the most
important things done at a national convention
 At the end of the convention the actual voting
by delegates from each state for the party
candidate is done. Balloting continues until a
candidate receives a majority of the delegates'’
votes.
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Assignment/Project
Create a political party and give it a
name(5pts)
 Give your party a political symbol (10pts)
 Create a party platform highlighting where
your party stands on 8 political issues/ 8
small paragraphs describing your stance
on each issue ! (40 points)
 Give me a representation of what your
candidate looks like (5 points)
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Cabinet
Serves an advisory board to the President
 Composed of 15 cabinet positions
 Washington’s first cabinet had a total of 4
cabinet positions
 Each position is appointed by the
President and approved by the Senate
 Look at page 426 and let’s look at some
cabinet positions
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